


Road For Home

by in_the_bottle



Series: Can't Go Back [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Genderfluid Character, Intersex Loki, Jötunn Loki, Lady Loki, M/M, Romance, Snark, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-02-22 13:24:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 45,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2509364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/in_the_bottle/pseuds/in_the_bottle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Loki was told of his adoption not long before the events in Thor? An AU where Loki and Tony literally crashed into each other and Tony discovers that his life is actually an 80s sci-fi movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Long notes is going to be long. I'm posting this as a WIP because I just NEED TO GET IT OUT. And its not really a WIP, its finished. Not only is this finished, its sequel is also finished. I'm just doing the edits right now. For those of you following me on Twitter, you'll know this thing is over 46k. Yeah. It started out earlier in the year when [](http://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=ithildyn)[](http://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=ithildin)**ithildin** mentioned Detective Loki, and my brain went into overdrive. I got a bit stuck in March after 9500+ words of this was written, but it got unstuck and I pretty much wrote the rest of it in the last 8 weeks. It was insane. The end result? This is not like the original fic I had in mind at all. Other than the fact that its still a time traveling piece (yay, TIME TRAVEL!!) this ended up being a lot more character focused. And I think that's what it was always supposed to be because as soon as I switched to the characters, it all started to flow. Anyway, my alternate title for this was "Tony, Loki, and Their Massive Daddy Issues", just so you know.  
>  I should also add that I'm taking _a lot_ of liberties with the movie-verse canon, comic canon, and the Norse mythology. Basically picking and choosing whichever bits I like and making shit up as I go along. 
> 
>  
> 
>  **Thanks** : To [](http://lefaym.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://lefaym.dreamwidth.org/)**lefaym** for being a sounding board and betaing this monster.  
> 

"Loki!"

Loki ignored his mother's call and ran from her chambers, the guards and servants getting out of his way as he headed for the stables. He rode out of the city on the first saddled mare he found. He did not give much thought as to where he was heading, only that he needed to get away from the palace, away from the place he had thought of as home his entire life; a life that was nothing but a lie.

Adopted.

_Jötunn._

The words Frigga had uttered still echoed through Loki's mind. Simple words that had utterly destroyed his view of the world and where he stood in it.

The mare came to a halt, panting in exhaustion. He was far away enough from the city that the only buildings around were farm houses, few and far apart. This soon after the harvest season, the fields on the side of the small rural road were empty of crops and there was no one around for as far as the eyes could see. The location was as isolated as Loki felt at that moment.

Loki was breathing almost as hard as his horse. The magic within himself in as much turmoil as his emotions; he was on the edge of losing control of his powers. Gently, he patted the mare and dismounted, leading the animal towards the edge of the woods that was on the far side of the path he had ridden down. Closing his eyes, Loki focused on his control and his breathing, willing the magic within him to settle.

Once he was calm enough, Loki led the mare deeper into the woods so that they would not be spotted if someone came down the path. Tying the horse to a tree, he left her to rest and graze while he slumped against the trunk of another tree not far away. The grass was damp, but Loki didn't care, his mind was too busy replaying the earlier scene in Frigga's chambers to care about his physical comforts.

"From the start, your father and I had disagreed on how to approach this. If it were up to him, he would never have told you," Frigga had said.

"Then why did you?" Loki had asked, still reeling from the truth that his mother, his adopted mother had just told him.

"You deserve to know."

"I deserve to know that I will never be good enough?" Loki shot back.

"No, you deserve to know the truth."

"Why now?"

"Because it is still not yet too late."

Not yet too late for Loki to stop his plans for getting into Thor's way. Not yet too late for Loki to realise that he would never be the golden son's equal because he wasn't. No matter how clever, how politically astute, or how skilled he was as a mage, he would never be Thor's equal. All his life, Loki had wondered why he never quite fit in with his supposed peers, and now he knew.

"You will always be my child, Loki."

"I...." Loki had stammered before taking a deep breath to compose himself. "Thank you, mother. For telling me," he finally managed before fleeing her chambers as fast as he could.

He needed time to think.

From a young age, Loki had known that Thor would one day become king. Thor was the oldest, after all. It had been something Loki had accepted as a child without question. But as he grew older, he had started to wonder about what it actually took to be a king, the qualities that a king should possess. He had asked Odin the same questions, but Odin hadn't really answered. Through the time Loki spent at court observing Odin at his throne, he knew that whatever qualities a king should possess, Thor was still lacking. Giving Thor the throne now would be a big mistake, but it was no longer Loki's place to say anything. It was never his place, just as Asgard had never been his home.

"Asgard will always be your home, Loki."

Loki looked up to find a simulacra of Frigga standing before him. Loki was a skilled enough illusionist himself to be able to tell the difference between a projection and real flesh and blood. Especially since it was Frigga herself who taught him all she knew of the craft. The sun was already setting, Loki had been lost in his thoughts far longer than he had realised.

"Is it?" Loki asked.

"Yes." Frigga's reply was resolute.

"What does... father has to say about all this?" Loki asked, finding himself stumbling upon the word 'father'.

"He's furious at me, but I can handle him."

"Why didn't he want me to know?" Loki was suddenly afraid of the answer even as his lips formed the question.

"He wanted to protect you. We both do. It just so happens that we disagree on how to go about doing so. He thought by shielding you from the truth -- "

"That I could lead a happy life in ignorance? Pretending to be a Prince of Asgard when I'm in fact a... a monster?"

"You are no monster." Frigga's tone was firm. "You are never allowed to think of yourself as such. Did you forget that the All-father himself is half Jötunn? That his mother, Queen Bastla of Asgard was Jötunn. You _are_ a Prince of Asgard, and I will never let anyone take that title away from you, child of my heart." Frigga said gently as she gathered her dress and sat down beside Loki. The illusion felt so real that Loki could almost feel her body heat beside him.

"Your father will never say it, so I will. We are sorry."

"What for?" Loki looked at Frigga.

"For not telling you the truth sooner. At first it was because you were too young to truly understand, but as the years passed, we became... complacent. I am as much to blame as Odin in this." Frigga sighed.

"Earlier, when I asked you why now, you said because it is still not yet too late. What did you mean by that?"

"You haven't been happy lately. Oh, you put on a good mask," Frigga said when Loki looked at her in surprise. "But a mother can always tell. You've always been different, even as a child. Your talents in magic cannot be disputed even when Thor and his friends preferred ways of the warrior. You always seem amicable enough to not let their opinion bother you too much, but lately, ever since we had let him know of your father's decision to name him Crown Prince," Frigga paused, as though looking for the right words. Loki had never known his mother to hesitate. "You're still the same Loki, but their attitude changed. Even Thor had started to think he was more invincible than he really is." Frigga shook her head. "I can never talk any sense into your brother."

"What has that got to do with your decision to finally reveal the truth to me?"

"Loki, you've always wondered why you were different from Thor and his friends. You even asked me as much when you were a child. I had thought that by sharing my knowledge of magic with you it would make you feel a bit more accepted, but it obviously wasn't enough." Frigga sighed, looking at Loki with such sadness in her eyes that it made Loki's breath catch.

"It was time to let you know why," Frigga continued. "And for you to learn that different doesn't mean that you're weaker or lacking in any way. It just means that you're different. In a society that is as traditional as Asgard, it makes you unique and that is a good thing. Thor and his friends are just too young and foolish to realise it."

Loki took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "Who else knows the truth?"

"Other than your father and I, Heimdall, and now you."

"Not Thor?"

"By the Norns, no," Frigga looked alarmed over the prospect of Thor knowing the truth. "Not yet. He has a bit more growing up to do before I would trust him with something like that. There're still enough resentment among the people from the last war with Jötunheimr, and I don't want you to bear the brunt of things should Thor let slip something like that in some drunken confession."

Loki couldn't help the small chuckle at the obvious horror on his mother's expression at the thought of Thor accidentally letting slip a secret she and the All-father had spent more than a millennium protecting.

"I still haven't a clue why your father thought he was ready to bear the title of crown prince," Frigga confessed.

"Mother, I...." Loki paused, suddenly uncertain of what he was going to say.

"You need time. I understand."

"You always do." Frigga had always known what Loki needed even before Loki himself did. It could be her gift of prophecies, but it could also be that she knew him better than anyone.

"Visit Hela. I suspect she might also benefit from the knowledge of her true heritage."

Loki nodded. The mere thought of his daughter was enough to lightened his spirit somewhat.

"And after that?" he asked.

"If you still need more time or somewhere to think things through that is not here at home, you have all of the Nine Realms to search for your answers if that is what you wish."

"And after that?" Loki repeated, feeling like he had gone back in time and was once again a small boy seeking reassurance from his parents.

"Asgard will always be your home. Never doubt that, child of my heart."


	2. One

"Do you feel any different than before you learned the truth?" Hela had asked. They were sat in the small garden just outside of her chambers at her palace. While visitors were rare in the land of the dead, they were not completely unheard of. 

"How can I not feel different when I am different?"

"Father, you have always been who you are, and so have I. The fact that we consist within us something else that we had not known before doesn't change the fact that you are still Loki and I am still Hela. What we are remains the same, its only who we think we are that has changed." 

"Isn't that what matters?"

"Perhaps," Hela had nodded in agreement. "I rule over the land of the dead. It has remained unchanged for as long as life existed. While the nature of some of my powers is now clearer, it matters not to me what I am, for the dead do not care. But you are the God of Chaos, Father; change is inevitable."

"The foundations of who I thought myself to be have completely crumbled," Loki admitted. "I no longer know who I am or who I am meant to be." He knew he sounded uncharacteristically vulnerable, and he wouldn't normally be as frank as he was now, but Hela was his daughter. If there was one person in all of the Nine Realms who had never judged Loki, it was her. 

Hela nodded. "It is not surprising. Ever since I was chosen to rule this realm, I have stopped defining myself in terms of my birth and origins. But you have always viewed yourself as Asier and you were brought up to believe that to be true." Hela shook her head in puzzlement. "I don't know what grandmother was thinking when she decided to teach you magic without telling you something as important as this."

"Apparently, it was an attempt to protect me," Loki replied, he couldn't help sounding a little bitter despite his best efforts not to. 

"Grandmother should've known that mages need to be sure in the knowledge of their own self or they risk losing their sanity," Hela frowned. "They should've told you when the extent of your powers became obvious." 

Loki shook his head. "I have accepted that this is a trial that I must go through. I just wished..." Loki paused, considering his words. "Things would have been much easier for you if I've known earlier," Loki finally said, reaching out to clasps one of Hela's hand in his. "It would have saved you so much grief while you were a child." 

Hela gave Loki a small smile, squeezing Loki's hand gently. "It matters not to me. What's important is you. I can already sense that your control over your magic is slipping, and I dread to think of the consequences if you truly lose it."

"That might be a good thing, to lose it completely in the middle of the court," Loki let out a bitter laugh.

"Father – "

"I'm angry, Hela," Loki admitted. "The All-father, he would have kept this secret until Ragnarok if mother hadn't gone against his wishes. I dread to think what would have happened if I discovered the truth some other way," Loki took a deep breath. "I am so angry at them for keeping this from me for so long, but…" he trailed off. 

"But you still love them, because blood relation or not, they raised you and they are your parents," Hela picked up where Loki couldn't continue. "Perhaps a little distraction and distance may give you a better perspective?" Hela suggested. 

"Maybe," Loki agreed. "You have always been wise beyond your years. I would be foolish not to consider your suggestion." 

Loki didn't linger in his daughter's realm; it was not a place the living should remain for long. Loki was known in most of the Nine Realms, having wandered far and wide over the years in search of further knowledge, but it had been a few centuries since he had set foot on Midgard, the realm of the mortals. Part of Loki was curious to see how the human race had fared in the time since his last visit, and given the size and population on the world, it would be a simple task to disappear among the crowd. It was the perfect place to both distract himself from his problems.

What Loki found on Midgard quickly captured his interest. The new inventions, the scientific developments have been nothing short of remarkable. In the same time frame, Asgard had scarcely changed at all, but the humans had gone from barely civilised primitives hardly comprehending the basic concepts of physics and the cosmos, to beings capable of building spacecraft and walking on the moon. Midgard was still much less technologically advanced than Asgard, but the gap was closing much more rapidly than Loki expected. 

Conjuring up relevant travel and identity papers was a simple task even with his less than precise control over his powers. He had spent several weeks visiting some of the major cities on the planet. Beijing, Tokyo Paris, London. With his rather European appearance, Loki had stood out a bit too much in Asia. He knew if he truly wanted to, he could shift his appearance to match the local population, but he found himself somehow unwilling to hide. False skin upon false skin; Loki may have been the God of Lies, but he had never been good at lying to himself, not for long. 

Paris reminded Loki a bit too much of Asgard with its rather ostentatious buildings and palaces, but London Loki had liked. Similar to the other major cities Loki visited, London had plenty of places for him to explore, and to fade into the sea of humanity if he so wished. But there was also something else about the city that fascinated him. He probably would have stayed in London and find out what it was about the city that captured his attention if not for the fact that he had sensed the activation of the Bifrost somewhere in North America. 

The sight of Thor as a human shocked Loki. He remained out of his adopted brother's sight even as he wondered about the circumstances that lead to Thor being stripped of his powers and banished to Midgard. Thor must have done something utterly idiotic if the All-father had handed down such a punishment to the Crown Prince of Asgard. 

Shrouding himself in a veil of invisibility, Loki teleported himself next to Mjölnir. The hammer was housed beneath a temporary tent some Midgardian government agency had built around it. Loki reached out with his magic, communicating with the hammer in his own unique way. He had never been able to lift the hammer, but communicating with it had never been a problem for Loki, to the occasional annoyance of Thor. Mjölnir was forged out of magic, and Loki was himself a being of magic. 

This time, however, there was a resistance from Mjölnir that Loki had never felt before. It was as though Mjölnir was uncertain about Loki. "Even you can sense my turmoil," Loki said quietly, reining in his emotions as he concentrated. Finally, the hammer responded to Loki as it had done so countless times before. 

"I see," Loki muttered to himself when Mjölnir's magic reached out to answer some of his questions. "The All-father had finally woken up to the fact that his golden prince is nowhere near ready to take the throne." He couldn't help the small smile of satisfaction at that piece of information. "Mother must have had a hand in that." 

Of course, a wet and muddy Thor literally crashed through the tent before Loki could get anything more out of Mjölnir. Stepping aside, Loki allowed Thor to approach the hammer. Thor's cry of distress when he failed to lift the hammer did not come as a surprise to Loki. 

"For the sake of Asgard, I hope you learn some humility and good sense here on Midgard," Loki muttered silently to his adopted brother even as he watched the government agents rushed into the tent "Good luck, Thor." Loki said before he teleported away, leaving his adopted brother to his fate. 

It was a television news report of Iron Man that drew Loki to New York. Loki had heard people talking about Tony Stark and Iron Man in his months of travels, but he hadn't really paid that much attention to human gossip. When Loki finally saw Iron Man – Stark – on a television screen in a diner in the middle of nowhere America, his attention was immediately captured by the glowing device that seemed to be embedded within the man's own chest. 

From the screen, Loki was not able to ascertain the nature of the energy that powered the Iron Man armour, but the pale blue glow was similar enough to a form of magical energy that Loki couldn't help but wonder whether the human had indeed managed to bridge the gap between science and magic. 

As far as Loki could tell, Stark was largely based in California, but his recent projects seemed to place him in New York more frequently, so that was where Loki found himself. New York was similar to London in that it would be easy for Loki to lose himself in the metropolis; just another anonymous face. Of course, that was also the same thing that made it hard for Loki to get anywhere near Stark. 

There was no rush though. There were plenty of things in New York for Loki to explore while he came up with a plan. Posing as a visiting scholar from England, Loki secured himself a modest but comfortable apartment in downtown New York with a balcony that just happened to have a good view of the mostly completed Stark Tower. In the first few weeks, Loki spent his time between exploring the new city and trying to find out as much information as he could about the arc reactor technology, only to discover that the proprietary information was almost impossible to obtain without the appropriate Stark Industries clearance. 

Loki had contemplated teleporting himself into Stark Tower and stealing the information, but the more he read about the security measures and the Artificial Intelligence system named J.A.R.V.I.S. that guarded the tower, the more convinced he was that it was a bad idea. His fascination with Stark also increased as a result. Surely, no mere human could have developed and built those technologies by himself? Loki wanted to meet the man properly, not to break into his home and risk getting shot by Iron Man. Needless to say, the challenge was providing Loki with all the distractions he needed from his problems. Surprisingly, Loki found that if he didn't dwell on it, his control on his magic seemed to stabilised. 

"That's some pretty heavy reading you got there, Prof," Casey said. The young brunette waitress pointed to the book Loki had borrowed from the library; _Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals_. 

"How many times do I have to remind you that I'm not a professor?" Loki replied with a sigh, wondering what made him think it was a good idea to start a conversation with her the first time he visited the corner cafe located half a block from his apartment. Since then, Casey had somehow gotten the idea that they were friends and would often stop and attempt conversation with Loki. For some unfathomable reason, Loki never did really told her off for it. 

Casey shrugged. "Professor, researcher. Same diff. Your usual?" 

"Yes, please. Though," Loki paused. "I think I would like to try the chocolate pancake this time."

"Yes!" Casey whooped in victory. "Finally you're seeing sense! I've said it before, and I'll say it again: chocolate pancakes are the food of the gods!" 

"We shall see how true your claim is then, shall we?" Loki smirked.

"Trust me, you won't regret it!" Casey wrote down his order before almost bouncing away. 

The young college student had been trying to get Loki to try the cafe's famous chocolate pancake since the first time she served him more than a month ago. Loki had resisted and stuck to the plain crepes with blueberry and honey for the majority of his visits thus far. The food at the cafe was passable, but it was the only place near his apartment that Loki found which made a decent cup of tea. He had grown fond of the beverage during his time in Asia and London. It had boggled his mind how most American establishments could managed to mess up the simple act of adding hot water to tea leaves. 

Casey returned a couple minutes later with his pot of tea. The cafe was relatively empty given that the morning rush was over, and it was still a couple hours too early for the lunch crowd. Instead of returning to work, Casey sat down in the chair facing Loki. 

"So, you believe in ghosts?" Casey asked. 

"Why do you ask?"

The girl pointed at the thick volume resting on the table, raising her eyebrows in question. 

"Metaphysics has nothing to do with ghosts. It is a branch of philosophy that seeks to answer the fundamental nature of existence and being," Loki answered. 

"Well, ghosts could be part of our existence," Casey argued. "I mean, if it can be proved that ghosts exists, that would change our view of what it means to be human, wouldn't it?" 

"Perhaps. But ghosts, at least by human definitions, do not exists." 

"My sister swears that her house is haunted," Casey continued. "She said there's this crack in wall of the study upstairs that just appeared one day out of the blue. No matter what they do they can't fix it. They tried painting it over, plastering, taping it, wallpapering it. Nothing worked. How weird is that? Maybe you should go take a look."

"Why?" Loki asked, pouring himself a cup of perfectly steeped tea.

"I dunno. Seem like something you'd find interesting," Casey shrugged. "Might convince you that ghosts do exist."

"What makes you think that would happen?" Loki asked, taking a sip of his tea. 

"I don't know how you can drink that with no sugar," Casey made a disgusted face at him.

"In the same way that you manage to drink your coffee black," Loki replied. 

"Coffee's different. Anyway, we're not talking about my coffee preference. That weird crack in my sister's house. I think you should go look at it."

"Again, why would you think I'd be remotely interested?"

"You've been reading about this metaphysical stuff. Just seems like something right up your alley." 

"It's a crack in a wall. It’s a construction project, not a haunting." 

"But it's a _haunted_ crack that won't go away!" 

"It's a _crack in a wall_ ," Loki repeated.

A week later, Casey dragged her sister and brother-in-law into the cafe and made them tell Loki about the strange lights and apparitions that drove them out of their home. It got harder after that for Loki to dampened his curiosity. 


	3. Two

"Sir," Jarvis's voice could barely be heard over the eardrum-bursting volume of AC/DC that was playing in Tony Stark's personal lab. "SIR!" 

"What?" Tony finally looked up from his soldering work, turning down the flames. "Turn the music down a bit," Tony commanded, taking off the safety mask. Jarvis wouldn't have interrupted him unless it was important. 

"Sir, the strange energy signature my sensors detected three nights ago," Jarvis started. 

"Is it back?" Tony asked excitedly, putting down his tools and headed towards his holographic workstation. While out testing some modifications to the Mark VI armour, the suit's sensors had picked up some brief but very strange energy reading from the direction of Brooklyn.

"No, but I have managed to determine its location."

Tony frowned. "How? You said it was too brief for you to get any more specific than a five mile radius around Brooklyn, which, by the way, was not much help at all, buddy."

Instead of answering, a projection of a newspaper report appeared, with the headline _'Ghostly Apparitions Interrupt Couple's Wedded Bliss'_. Tony stared at the article in disbelief. "Jarvis, are you serious? Tell me this is some sort of joke. I don't remember programming you with a sense of humour _this_ bad."

"The time and general location of the reported apparitions matched the data from my scans," Jarvis replied, ignoring Tony's comments. "The couple had only recently purchased and moved into their new home after their lovely wedding in Tahiti last month. They were most upset."

"Jarvis, you're joking, right? Because, are you kidding me!?" Tony pointed at the news article disbelievingly. "I asked you for the location of some anomalous energy reading and you give me this, Jarvis? A _haunted house_? Where did I go wrong with you, baby?"

"Where do you want me to start, sir?" Sardonic didn't even begin to describe Jarvis's tone. 

"You wound me, Jarvis. Wound me, right here in the heart," Tony mimed a chest wound right on top of his arc reactor. "Bring up that energy signature we recorded before," Tony commanded, sitting down on the stool in front of the holographic display. "Convert it to a sine wave frequency graph and display concurrently."

Putting the raw data and graph side by side, Tony squinted at the readings, thinking. "Estimated energy output level? No wait, convert that to illumination level."

"Approximately 8.3lux."

"Well, that should look like some ghostly apparitions in a dark room, wouldn't it?" Tony asked.

"Indeed it is possible, sir." 

"Looks like we'll be taking a trip to Brooklyn, Jarv," Tony stood up, intending to get into one of his Iron Man suits. "No wait. I can't be seen investigating a haunted house. I'd lose all credibility in the scientific community. Guess this will be an undercover mission!" Tony concluded with glee, grabbing an empty duffle bag from the corner of the room and dumping various bits of portable scanners and equipment into the bag. 

"Sir, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course it is. It's my idea," Tony cowed, grabbing the key to the normal Audi A5 – the unmodified one without a customised plate – and headed to the elevator. 

"I was afraid you were going to say that, sir." 

Tony only grinned as the elevator doors shut, cutting off his AI's artificial, yet somehow rather heartfelt sigh. 

The drive to Brooklyn was quicker than Tony anticipated. There really wasn't that much traffic even in New York City at 4am. Located at 203 Lefferts Avenue, the double storey dwelling looked just like every other townhouse on the street. According to Jarvis's research, the newly-wed couple had bought the entire building a few months prior to their wedding for just under $1.4million and had the place renovated before moving in three weeks ago. The house was now sitting empty with the couple having moved into a hotel after their scare. 

Breaking in was surprisingly easy much to Tony's delight, he didn't want to linger just in case someone saw him. The main door didn't even have an alarm installed. From the light of his LED torch, Tony could make out a tastefully decorated home. The walls were painted a faint pastel shade of inoffensive green, and pictures of family and friends along with what Tony could only assume were artistic prints, hung on the walls. 

"Jarvis?" Tony asked as he took out his modified StarkPhone that was directly connected to Jarvis's main servers back at the Tower. 

"The news article reported that the apparitions appeared in the upstairs study." 

There were only three rooms and a bathroom upstairs, and given that none of the doors were shut, it took Tony next to no time to locate the study. 

"Holy.... " Tony exclaimed as the light on his torch landed on the wide crack on the wall to the right of the rather wide window. Bookshelves lined most of the walls in the room, with a desk placed to the left of the window, piled with papers. Tony pulled one of the scanners from his duffle bag and turned the device on. "Jarvis, are you getting this?"

"Yes, sir," Jarvis replied, his voice somewhat distorted from the small cell phone speaker now that the phone was shoved into Tony's jean's pocket. "The energy levels are very low, but the signature is the same as the spike my sensors picked up before. This is undoubtedly the origin of the anomalous energy." 

"That is one big crack in the wall there," Tony muttered to himself even as he moved closer to it. 

"I do not detect any structural damage to the building."

"Are you sure? Because I'm seeing a big huge honking crack on the wall right in front of me," Tony abandoned the energy sensor in favour of his phone once more, turning on the camera to show Jarvis the crack on the wall. 

"Interesting."

"Interesting?" Tony asked. 

"While visual examination does indeed show a large crack, my sensors do not detect any structural damage. Analysis of the paint work also indicates that no damage has been sustained. Sir, for all intents and purposes, this crack in the wall does not exist."

"Interesting," Tony said, echoing his AI's earlier sentiments. 

"Indeed."

"Right, I'm going to take a few more readings and then we can get out of here." 

Of course, just as Tony was heading out of the room – after leaving a couple of remote detectors around the room to monitor the energy level – he literally slammed into someone who was making their way into the room. Tony and the other person both fumbled and somehow ended up on the floor in a painful heap, with Tony on the bottom. 

"Ow!" 

The other person recovered first and managed to get back on their feet, switching on the lights in the room. 

Tony blinked owlishly as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness after spending god knows how long in the semi darkness. 

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the guy demanded. Tony's vision had recovered somewhat, allowing him to see that the other man was pale, and tall, with dark hair that was just above his shoulders. He was standing next to the light switch beside the entrance to the study. 

"I could ask you the same, buddy!" Tony retorted. "You don't look like Mr Roberts to me." 

"Who on Earth is Mr Roberts?" the guy asked. Now that Tony's paying attention, he noticed that the guy's accent was clearly British. Reminiscent to Jarvis's accent even, only more proper if that was possible. And Jesus Christ, could those legs get any longer and those jeans any tighter? Never let it be said that Anthony Stark was not a strong supporter of gender equality, especially when it came to legs that seemed to go on forever. The dark green shirt the guy was wearing was also very flattering.

"Who are you?" Tony demanded in return, scrambling up from the rather embarrassing position of being flat on his back. 

"A friend of the family. I should be the one asking the questions here."

"A friend of the family who visits at," Tony looked at his wristwatch. "Barely five in the morning?"

The man narrowed his eyes at Tony, making his already rather prominent cheekbones stand out even more. "I like to get an early start to the day," he replied. "And you, Mr Stark, are clearly trespassing."

"Just investigating some strange energy readings."

"I wouldn't have thought a man of science such as yourself would be interested in something as superstitious as 'ghosts'," the man said, sounding as though as he didn't quite believe in the concept himself.

"There's no such things as ghosts," Tony replied. "I don't know what your friends saw, but my sensors picked up a spike of rather abnormal energy reading three nights ago. I'm just trying to find out what it is. You clearly know who I am, so you'd also know I'm not here to steal anything."

"Sir, I am detecting a further rise in energy levels," Jarvis interrupted from Tony's pocket before the stranger could say anything. 

Tony turned around to look at the crack in the wall that wasn't supposed to be there and saw that it was now emitting a strange bluish green glow, like the colour of the ocean along the Greek Coast. A couple of ghostly figures flickered into existence and appeared to be pacing back and forth in front of the crack and the window. Even with the lights turned on in the room, their glow was still visible. 

"Jarvis, you getting all this?"

"Yes, sir." 

Tony was glued to the spot as he observe the strange phenomenon before him, but the other man walked closer towards the... apparitions, for the lack of better word, eyes narrowed as he scrutinised them. 

"Fascinating," he muttered. He stuck his arm through one of the ghostly figures only for the figure to disappear like a cloud of smoke being blown away by a breeze. The man proceeded to ignore the second figure and turned his attention to the glowing crack in the wall instead, stooping down slightly to get a closer look. He waved his right palm in front of it. "This isn't supposed to be here." 

"How do you know that? I was barely getting any coherent sensor readings from it and you just wave your hand in front of it like some voodoo practitioner and you can tell?" Tony asked. Just who the hell was this guy?

Tony grabbed his duffle bag, but before he could find what he was looking for, there was a sudden flash of light that almost blinded him. When his vision cleared, the apparitions and the strange glow were gone. The still nameless guy was still in front of the supposedly non-existent crack on the wall looking as though someone had just walked over his grave. 

"Jarvis, what the hell just happened?" Tony asked even as the other man shook his head from side to side, as though trying to clear his mind. "Jarvis?" Tony asked again, when the expected reply did not come. 

Taking a closer look at his phone, Tony noticed the complete lack of cell reception, which was something that was never supposed to happen to his phones, ever, even if he was ten floors underground. When Tony looked up again from his phone, all the bookshelves and the desk at the left of the window had disappeared, the paint on the wall had also turned form the freshly painted new look to well-worn and was peeling at various points. "What... how..." 

"Time," the man muttered, as though to himself. 

"What?" Tony demanded. 

"Time," the man repeated, louder this time. He was pale when he turned to face Tony. If asked, Tony would have said he looked half way between scared and excited. "The crack. It's a crack through the fabric of time." 

Tony blinked. "You're shitting me."

"I assure you, I am not. And if I'm not mistaken, we were caught in one of its tendrils and have been transported to the past." 

"Are you telling me we've gone _Back to the Future_?"

The man looked confused. "How is it that we can go back to the future?"

"What? How could you not know _Back to the Future_? Who the hell are you?!" 

"My name is Loki."

"Wow, if that's your real name, your parents must either be sadistic or really big fans of Norse mythology," Tony said. "Or possibly both. I suspect both."

Loki didn't respond to Tony's declaration, but there was a slight quirk at the corner of his lips that suggested he was amused by Tony's reaction to his name. 

"And you still haven't answered my question, how did you know we've travelled back in time? And if we really did travel through time, why couldn't it have been forward in time?" Tony asked. The crack was still there on the wall, but with the shelves and table gone, the room was bare. 

"That." Loki pointed towards the light bulb hanging overhead. The stylish modern light fixture that had been there before was gone, leaving a rather old fashioned bare incandescent light bulb hanging overhead. 

"You're basing your theory on the fact that the light bulb is a bit out of style?" Tony asked. "For all you know, they might be having some vintage revival in the future." 

"It's not only the light bulb," Loki snapped, much to Tony's surprise. The guy had seemed relatively calm throughout their encounter so far. "The atmosphere and something else that's a bit hard to explain right now, it feels like the past. The light bulb merely confirms my suspicions."

"It _feels_ like the past? Oh my god, you really are some hippie voodoo practitioner aren't you!?"

"I am not!" Loki huffed, clearly offended by Tony's allegations. "You do not have to take my word for it. I'm sure I'll be proven correct once we step out of the house." 

It was still dark outside, and peering through the window didn't really tell Tony much about the situation, given that the study had a view of the small garden at the back of the house and not the main street up front. Still clutching onto his duffle bag of now potentially future tech, Tony made his way out of the study. 

"This doesn't make sense," Tony muttered to himself as he dashed from room to room, checking everything. 

The rest of the house had been similarly transformed. Where there had been new modern furnishing and decorations, it was now empty with faded paint and peeling wallpaper. The place was completely empty except for Tony and Loki. There were some decrepit looking furniture in some of the rooms, and the electricity was connected, but that was about it. 

When he stepped out the front door, Tony had no idea what to expect, but after the changes he observed in the house, the fact that his car had disappeared came as less of a surprise than it otherwise would have been. All the other typical modern day city cars that were parked along the street had also vanished with the house's interior furnishing. It was practically empty except for a classic late 1920s Ford Model A parked a few doors down. The car looked like it had seen better days. 

There were street lights, but they weren't as bright as Tony was used to. Most of the sky was still dark, though a hint of light in the horizon told him that dawn was approaching. There was also a sign posted on the patch of ground in front of the house marking it as foreclosed. The streets were almost eerily quiet until Tony notice the sound of an oncoming bicycle. 

Turning around, Tony saw Loki standing at the top of the steps to the house looking back at him. A boy of about 11 or 12 was coming down the footpath on his bicycle, tossing rolled-up newspapers to some of the homes along the street. The bicycle appeared old fashioned, but Tony was never an expert of anything without an engine or power source. The boy's clothes also looked like something he'd seen from some old black and white movie his mother had been fond of, but fashion had never been one of Tony's areas of expertise either, he had people for that. 

"Hey kid," Tony called out to the boy. The kid stopped in front of him, looking up at Tony curiously. 

"Can I borrow that for a minute?" Tony pointed to the roll of newspaper the boy had in his left hand. "I just need to check something, I'll give it right back."

"Uh... " The boy hesitated. 

"I promise I'll give it right back, I just need to check something on the front page, I wouldn't even open the paper so no one will know," Tony put on his 'I swear I'm harmless smile' and hoped that he didn't come across as a creep. 

"Okay, sir. If you promise," the boy said before he carefully handed Tony the paper in his hand. 

Tony put down the duffle bag he was still holding and unrolled the paper to find himself looking at the front page of the New York World Telegram, dated July 25, 1934. The headline _DOLLFUSS ASSASINATED_ dominated the front page of the paper. 

"Shit," Tony muttered, before handling the paper back to the kid as promised. "Thanks kid. Now off you go," Tony patted the boy on the shoulder, not even noticing the strange look the boy was giving him as he quickly picked up his bag and made his way back to the front door where Loki stood. 

Loki stood aside and let Tony back into the house before closing the door behind them. 

"Well?" Loki asked as Tony dump his duffle bag down on the floor, fighting the urge to join it on the ground. 

"July 25th, 1934," Tony replied. "How did you know that we'd gone back in time?" He asked, staring at Loki. The man had waved his hand in front of the cracked wall and as far as Tony could tell, pretty much pulled that shit out of thin air. 

"It's complicated," Loki replied. 

"Well, it looks like we have time on our hands, so why don't you explain it to me," Tony demanded in a quiet hiss, not wanting to wake the neighbours who'd possibly ask questions he wasn't prepared to answer. Like how two men had appeared in the middle of the night into their foreclosed neighbour's home. 

No one could blame him for being a little short tempered. He was stuck 77 years in the past, no matter how he looked at it, he was screwed; might as well get a proper explanation as to the why and how, and maybe from that he could work out a way to get them back to 2011.


	4. Three

"How did you know that we'd been sent back in time?" Stark demanded again, arms crossed defensively across his chest. He was looking at Loki with suspicion and Loki didn't blame him. 

"It'll probably be best to find somewhere to sit before I attempt to explain," Loki replied. "As I've said, it's complicated." Loki wasn't stalling for time, not exactly, but he still wasn't quite sure how much he should reveal to Stark. On one hand, given that they were now stuck in the past and would likely need to work together to return to their proper time, Loki needed Stark to trust him. On the other hand, Stark was a mortal man that was for all intents and purposes a stranger, and Loki had never been one to give up his secrets willingly, especially if it involved possible revelations of his own vulnerabilities. 

"I think I saw some chairs in the kitchen," Stark said, gesturing towards the back of the house. "After you." 

Loki didn't argue. The kitchen, like the rest of the house, was dimly lit and run down. There was a dining table that had definitely seen better days, with three matching chairs made from the same unfamiliar wood. 

Stark dumped his bag of equipment on top of the table. Loki was somewhat surprised that the table didn't collapse under the weight. 

"Sit," Stark ordered, "Explain." He followed his own order and sat in one of the chairs, his eyes never leaving Loki. 

Loki followed Stark's lead and sat down in the chair opposite. From his position, Loki could see through the kitchen window. The sky was slowly growing lighter, soon, it would be daylight. 

Stark was looking at Loki expectantly. The lies were on the tip of Loki's tongue, but he hesitated. Loki needed Stark to trust him. His control over his magic was still unstable; it would take far too long by himself to work out how to get back to their own time. Until they could solve the problem of how to get back, Loki was pretty much stuck with Stark, and if he was even half as clever as the media made him out to be, it was likely that in time, he would see through Loki's lies. There was no point trying to hide the existence of magic from Stark given that their problem was at least partially magical in nature. There was also the fact that for some incomprehensible reason, Loki had given Stark his real name instead of the pseudonym he had adopted when he arrived on Midgard.

"Given your reaction to my name, I gather that you're familiar with Norse mythology?" Loki finally asked. 

"From stories I read as a kid, yeah," Stark frowned. "What's that got to do with...." Stark trailed off, and Loki could almost see the thoughts racing through his mind. Then Stark blinked. "Are you trying to tell me that you're actually the Loki from the myths?" Stark demanded, sounding incredulous. 

Loki couldn't quite believe that Stark had come to the right conclusion just from one single question that Loki himself had asked. It made Loki glad that he had decided against lying, because it would've taken up a whole lot more attention and care to maintain the lies, and in their current predicament, that would just be a waste of resources they could ill afford. 

"Yes," Loki answered simply. 

Stark's eyes narrowed, and for the first time, Loki wished that he had the power to read minds because he desperately wanted to know what was going through Stark's mind. Stark then cocked his head slightly, as though evaluating Loki. 

"Any relation to that nut job in New Mexico?" Stark asked. 

"I beg your pardon?" Catching Loki off guard was not an easy task, but somehow, Stark managed it. 

"The guy in New Mexico, claiming to be Thor, the God of Thunder, Prince of where ever he thinks he's from," Stark clarified. 

"He's my..." Loki paused. "Adopted brother," he finally settled on. 

"Right," Stark snorted. "Next you're going to tell me you're also a Prince, that magic's real and that's how you knew we were sent back in time." 

"It's all true. I am a Prince of Asgard, magic is real, and that is how I knew we were sent back in time," Loki confirmed. "How did you know about Thor?"

"Jarvis picked up something weird happening in New Mexico and it had SHIELD's fingerprints all over it so I cracked their database."

"SHIELD? Ah yes, the rather shadowy government agency that held Thor for questioning," Loki nodded in understanding, noting Stark's somewhat surprised expression. SHIELD must not be an agency widely known to the public then. 

If Stark had known about Thor, it would explain how he had come to his earlier conclusion about Loki's identity. It was still an amazing feat to have leap to the right conclusion as Stark did, but it made it slightly less improbable. "And magic is real," Loki opened his left palm where a ball of flame burst into existence. 

"Holy shit!" Stark said, eyes wide with surprise, making Loki smile. 

Loki proceeded to turn the fire into ice, letting it fall with a dull thud on the table. The ball of ice rolled towards Stark, who snatched it up before it could fall off the edge of the table. 

"It's real ice," Stark commented, examining the ice ball in an expression that looked to Loki like Stark's scepticism was fighting a losing battle with his sense of curiosity. 

"Of course it's real ice. I'm a mage, not some conjurer of cheap tricks," Loki snorted. He was more than capable of summoning the illusion of fire and ice, but creating matter out of seemingly thin air took a lot more skill than the simple illusions that Stark had probably been expecting. 

"Right, Gandalf, got it." 

"What?" Loki asked in confusion. 

"Gandalf? You know, the wizard from _Lord of the Rings_?" Stark's explanation might as well be gibberish for all the sense it made to Loki. Then something clicked. 

"Is that a film?" Loki asked, recalling a number of film and cultural references that Casey had made in their various conversations in the last few weeks, and his own experience with the television that came with his apartment in New York. 

"By George, he's got it!" Stark said, his hands still rolling the ice-ball on the table, leaving a growing trail of melting ice darkening the wooden surface. Stark looked back down at the ice-ball, thoughtful. "How...I mean, the ice, before it was fire, the energy conversion, what..." Stark stammered, looking as though he had about a hundred questions all clambering to be asked at the same time. 

Loki decided to take pity on him.

"Tell me, Stark, if you were to appear in your Iron Man armour five hundred years in the past, wouldn't the people of that time think you some sort of wizard capable of great magical feat?"

"So you're saying magic is just advanced science?" Stark said. He started to toss the ice ball form one hand to another, before deciding that he didn't really want to get wet and tossed the whole thing into the sink behind him. "That any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?"

"In a sense," Loki nodded. It was far more complex than that, and it took Loki literally centuries to understand certain aspects of magical theory, they really didn't have time to go into the technical details. 

"And you decide to break the laws of physics just like that?" Stark asked. "You know what, never mind that fire and ice trick, how could you tell we were sent back in time by that crack in the wall? And if your answer is 'magic', I might just give in to the urge to punch you in the face." 

"Like your sensors," Loki indicated to Stark's bag. "As a magic user of a certain calibre, I have the ability to pick up on magical energy signatures. Unlike your sensors, I do not require a computer to process the data. We don't have the time to get into the details of the nature of magic and magical theories, it will literally take you several lifetimes to even begin to comprehend it. Suffice to say, I have a built in sensor and computer." It was the simplest explanation Loki could come up with that Stark might understand. What Stark didn't need to know was the fact that his inbuilt computer was suffering an internal meltdown that Loki hadn't even began to try and fix. 

"How do I know that you aren't just some other nut job with delusions of godhood?" Stark asked, still suspicious, but the earlier hostility against Loki had also abated somewhat in light of the new information Loki had provided. "According to SHIELD's records, the guy in New Mexico was completely human, nothing special about him."

"As far as I know, Thor was stripped of his powers when he was banished to this realm. He would appear completely human to your equipment because he is," Loki replied. "I came here on my own accord and had been traveling around Midgard... Earth," Loki corrected, "for a few months before Thor's banishment. And wasn't I proven correct when you read the date on the newspaper?" 

"Okay, let's say that I believe in this magic mumbo jumbo - " 

"It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not," Loki interrupted. "It doesn't change the fact that magic is real and exists. Just like your science, it doesn't matter what people believe, it is a fact; Earth is round and oxygen is required for combustion."

"Right, fine. Magic is advanced science." Loki was sure Stark was merely humouring him at this point, at least until he could get more information out of him. "You said you have been travelling around Earth and that Thor was banished to Earth. So my question is, where are you from?" 

"As I've said before, Asgard."

"Of course, what was I thinking," Stark rolled his eyes. "So, Asgard, it's an alien planet then?"

"It is not a planet per se, but for the sake of expediency, you may call it such," Loki answered. 

"So, you're an alien being whom my ancient human ancestors had mistaken as gods," Stark summarised. "If you're so advanced, care to shed some light on how the hell do we get back to 2011? I really don't have any desire to accidentally bump into the teenage version of my father, and Holy Mother of God, I'm Marty McFly."

"You are who?" Loki asked, once again confused. 

Stark's face scrunched up in something like disgust at Loki's question. "Seriously, how do you not know _Back to the Future_? It's a classic!" 

"Is that another film?" Stark had to be one of the strangest human he had come across in his travels so far. 

"Never heard of _Lord of the Rings_ or _Back to the Future_ , you're definitely an alien," Stark slap his palms down on the table top. "And if we ever get back to our own time, I'm going to make you watch the entire trilogy, but first things first, I repeat, how do we get back?"

"I don't know," Loki admitted. "I was able to sense that we had travelled back in time, and that crack on the wall is in fact a tear in the fabric of time, but I cannot determine what caused the tear or how we could utilise it to return home without causing it to collapse onto itself." 

"Collapsing onto itself!?" Stark was alarmed. Good, it meant that he understood the seriousness of their situation and the risks they were facing. "Would that entail wiping everything in this timeline, including ourselves, out of existence?"

Loki nodded, pleased with Stark's grasp of the situation despite his lack of information. The media had quite possibly underestimated just how smart Stark was. Loki was having trouble trying to remember the last time he'd met anyone whose mind and wit was as sharp and quick as Stark's, who as far as Loki could tell, had no problems keeping up with him. 

"Depending on the nature of the tear, that is one possibility. I believe your sensors were still recording when we were transported, if we could analyse the data, it would perhaps shed more light on our situation."

"Yeah, that might be a bit of a problem."

Loki raised an eyebrow in question. 

"It's a sensor. It's only designed to record. I can retrieve some preliminary information on it like the intensity of the energy wave, but any more than that, I need to plug that thing into an actual computer to analyse the data. I can't just pop by down the local Walmart to pick one of those up in 1934." 

"I see," Loki said, his mind whirling, trying to come up with an alternate plan. 

"I can build one. A computer, I mean. I just need to get my hands on some materials, which might actually be a bit of a problem, come to think of it since I don't exactly have access to my funds." 

"That won't be a problem."

Stark raised both eyebrows at Loki. 

"I am able to... procure the currency you require," Loki answered Stark's unasked question. 

The smile on Stark's face probably would have set off warning bells in Loki's mind, if he hadn't been so busy quelling his excitement at the prospect of working with a brilliant mind like Stark. 

The problem, Loki quickly realised, was not his ability to replicate the local currency, but to gain access to the appropriate samples. While the American currency would largely remain the same in the for the next 77 years, there were still subtle differences that would draw unwanted attention to him and Stark should they be discovered. 

"Well," Stark said. "I could sell my watch, but this thing is clearly from the future," Tony gestured to the multi-dial watch face of the timepiece he was wearing. Stark's initial animosity seemed to be fading now that they were working towards a common goal.

"I have access to some gold coins we can sell for local currency," Loki said, remembering the small pouch of coins and semi-precious stones that he had stashed away in a pocket dimension. That should still be accessible to him despite his temporal displacement. 

"Gold coins? That's good. It'll give us a start in maybe getting some essentials for this place," Stark gestured at the house. "But if we're going to be staying in this house, and it's rather crucial that we do," Stark explained. "We need to blend in to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. This house is foreclosed, so that means no one's likely to come poking around. Given the current economic climate, it'll probably be sitting here for quite a few years before anyone will have enough money to buy it from the bank."

"The current economic climate?" Loki asked. 

"It's 1934, the middle of the Great Depression?" Stark looked at Loki as though he expected Loki to know what he was talking about. 

"Alien Norse god," Loki said. He wondered what it would take to make Stark stop questioning his origins. 

"Right, of course. So you're not familiar with recent Earth history then?"

"Alien Norse god," Loki repeated, letting some of his frustration through. 

"Okay, okay. You said you'd been on Earth for a while. How am I to know which bits of our Earthy history that you do or don't know?"

"Just assume that I don't know any of it," Loki replied. 

"Fine. Basically there was an economic crash back in 1929, and in the mid-1930s the unemployment rate is pretty crazy. In plain English, that means a lot of people are out of work and money's hard to come by," Stark explained.

"If that's the case, how do you propose we find a job? Especially if finding one for us means that someone else wouldn't have got the job they were supposed to in the first place –" 

"And we end up causing a paradox or something," Stark finished, frowning. "If money's not going to be an issue, then maybe we should do some volunteer work or something and pretend that it's a paid job, just to keep up appearances. If I can find what passes for an electronic store, it'll give me access to parts I'll need, and I won't be taking someone else's job." 

Loki nodded. Stark's plan was sound. 

"In that case, what we need is a backstory, something we can tell people when they start asking questions, and they will. Names, brief family history and all that crap." 

"I could go by the identity that I've been using the last few months." 

"That depends, what's the name you were going by?" 

"Lucas Frigerson."

"Yeah, that's uncommon enough that it might cause you more trouble when we get back to 2011. We humans like to keep records, and that might raise some red flags in the future if you go around using the same name." 

"Lucile Frigerson then," Loki suggested. 

"It’s a girl's name." 

"I can be a girl," Loki replied, shifting into his female form. 

"Whoa!" Stark exclaimed, almost falling out of his chair in shock at Loki's transformation. "How did you do that!?"

"Magic," Loki sighed. Feeling a tightness across her chest, she looked down to discover that the clothes had not shifted to accommodate the change in gender. "Damn," she muttered. Shape-shifting had been one of her natural talents and this was the first time since she had mastered the technique almost a thousand years ago that she hadn't successfully managed a full change. As much as Loki hated to admit it, she needed to regain control of her powers soon if she was to be at all useful in their current predicament. That meant she had to stop running away from her problems. 

Looking up again, Loki found Stark staring at her. Instead of the usual fear and disgust that Loki was used to encountering in Asgard, Stark's eyes were wide with wonder and mouth agape in awe. Stark snapped his mouth shut once he realised what he was doing, and Loki couldn't help laughing at Stark's reaction. 

"Now do you believe in magic?" Loki asked, amused. 

"Can I…" Stark stood up, moving closer to Loki. "It's not an illusion?" 

"Not an illusion," Loki replied, reaching out and grabbing one of Stark's hands with her own. "See, solid." Still holding on to Stark's hand, Loki shifted back into his normal male form, letting the mortal feel the physical change as it happens. 

"Okay, that is like the most amazing thing I've seen, and that's saying something since we just freaking travelled back in time!" Stark exclaimed. "Can you change into other forms? Are there limits to what you can and cannot change into? Damn it, I don't have the right equipment, you know what, when we get back to 2011, you need to let me run some scans, nothing invasive, just energy readings. Holy fuck, theory of quantum mechanics and biophysics all thrown into chaos in one day, do you have any idea how amazing – "

"Stark!" Loki halted the stream of babbling, trying not to laugh again at Stark's obvious child-like excitement. It was refreshing to encounter someone who could clearly appreciate his talents instead of reacting negatively due to their own prejudice and limited imagination. "Yes, there are limits to what form I can shift into, but that's not really going to help with our situation is it?"

"No, I guess not," Stark admitted, looking a little disappointed. 

"You can ask all your questions after we figure out what we need to do," Loki said. "Priorities." 

Stark cocked his head. "You sound like Pepper. I should introduce you two when we get back." 

Loki smiled. "In that case, let's get started on getting back then."


	5. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in updating. Been suffering from a case of vertigo/inner ear infection since last week and looking at the screen as I type just makes everything spin. Actually have my eyes closed as I touch type this note...

In the end, Tony was the one who came up with a plausible cover story for them. Not surprising considering the fact that Loki was completely clueless when it came to the modern history of Earth. 

Tony reasoned that with Loki's ability to change form, they could pretend to be a married couple, which would raise far fewer questions than two cousins with conspicuously different accents. 

"It will also attract more sympathy and provide an excuse for me to stay at home most of the time and monitor the tear," Loki added, agreeing to the plan. 

"Great, guess I'll be the breadwinner of this household then," Tony declared.

"You might want to take care of that before you go out," Loki pointed at Tony's chest where the light of the arc reactor was clearly visible through his t-shirt. 

"Crap. We don't really have any other clothes do we? Unless you can magically create some?" Tony asked. 

"Normally I would, but my control over my powers in the last few months has been...erratic," Loki grimaced. Tony had a feeling that Loki wasn't exactly happy with the admission. "There's a risk that whatever I conjure might just disappear after some time," Loki continued. "There's no way to predict whether that will in fact happen or how long the conjured item will last. " 

"Definitely not good." 

Loki frowned, looking thoughtful. "I might have an idea," he finally said. Standing up, a golden shimmer pass over Loki's form and he was once again in his female form. This time she looked tired and just slightly haggard, with her shoulder length hair slightly messy as though she was at the end of a long and tiring journey. 

Loki also wore a gender-appropriate plain white short-sleeved shirt and his jeans were now a long dark green skirt that would pass for 1930s fashion in a pinch. She (or was it still he? Tony was getting confused) was also wearing a pair of ankle length brown boots with a slight heel, which made her about the same height as Tony. A brown leather suitcase by her feet completed the look. 

Tony tried not to stare, but he just couldn't help himself. Loki still looked like Loki, only with a more feminine figure (much more feminine) and softer features. Even with their current situation acting as a rather big distraction, Tony had noticed how attractive the male version of Loki was. A nd that was saying something, given how practiced he was in ignoring his interest in men. Now that he was facing an equally gorgeous female version of Loki, Tony just wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. 

"Well?" Loki asked. Her voice was slightly higher pitch than when she was a he, but it was still unmistakably Loki. 

"Um...." Tony really hadn't had that much practice when it came to resisting his attraction to women.

"Stark!" 

"Sorry, it's just this whole... transformation thing." Tony waved at Loki, not quite sure what exactly he was saying. "So, um... yeah, plan?" Getting back to the plan had to be a safer topic for now; Tony was sure he would end up getting turned into a toad or something if he was stupid enough to proposition Loki. 

"The sun might be up, but it's the middle of summer, so its still early enough that no one is likely to be up and about just yet," Loki explained. "I'm confident that I can transform your t-shirt into something a little more in keeping with this time period. Thick enough to hide the light from the arc reactor at least for an hour or so. I can also teleport us to the end of the street and we can make our way back to the house." 

"Wait, like we just got here?" Tony was catching on to Loki's plan. "You can maintain your illusions, and we can say that we were robbed on the way over and my suitcase along with quite a bit of our cash were stolen. So we could possibly just go knock on the neighbour's door or something and borrow some clothes for a few days until I can get us more, and we'll also be legitimately moved in!" 

"Precisely!" 

"Oh, genius!" 

Loki smiled at Tony's praise, and Tony had to remind himself that he probably wouldn't enjoy being turned into a toad. Probably. 

By the time most of the street was finished with their breakfast, Mr Edward Smith and Mrs Lucile Smith had successfully moved into their new home, with two sets of outfit for Mr Smith – a simple workman's outfit and a plain suit – borrowed from their next door neighbour.

As soon as they were 'moved in', Tony changed out of his jeans into his borrowed pants and shirt, leaving his t-shirt on underneath to cover the light from his arc reactor. He absolutely did not squeal like a teenage girl at a One Direction concert when Loki, who was still in female form, punched a hole through the fabric of the universe into a pocket dimension to retrieve a few gold coins. 

"I don't have many of them left and we really don't want to arouse suspicion by selling a lot of them," Loki said. 

"Family heirloom from the old country; that should cover it if anyone asks. This should set us up nicely for a while," Tony said, taking the coins from Loki. "Now it's a matter of figuring out what we need to get home." Tony paused, trying to remember what he knew about technologies in the 1930s. Consumer electronics were probably limited to radio. Did they even have television in the 30s? Tony was pretty sure at least black and white television had been invented earlier in the decade. 

"What is it?" Loki asked after Tony had been silent for a while. 

"Nothing," Tony replied. "I'm just trying to remember my history lessons and trying to figure out what sort of tech they have in the 30s. I have a feeling I might have to break into the physics and engineering department at Columbia University to get my hands on some of what I need." 

"That could possibly have a negative effect on the timeline, important equipment go missing from high profile research facilities." 

"I'll have to see what I can get my hands on in the shops and what I can scavenge from what I had with me when we were transported here." Tony shrugged. "If we have to break in, and they do have what we need, can you just... "Tony gestured vaguely. "Make a copy so we don't have to take the original?"

Loki looked thoughtful. "Maybe," he finally said. "It depends on the object and its purpose." 

"Okay then, we'll copy it if you can. Otherwise I guess we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there. Right now, I think our first priority is to sell the gold, then get some essentials like tools, clothes, and food." 

"That sounds sensible," Loki nodded. 

"And something to sleep on because I am not sleeping on the floor, not without a whole load of alcohol at least."


	6. Five

Loki decided to remain in her female form for the rest of the day. Given Stark's reputation as a playboy and womaniser, it wasn't a surprise when he couldn't seem to stop staring at her. Loki knew that she was considered attractive by the standards of most of the Nine Realms, but it was still amusing to find Stark falling for her looks, just like the countless other silly men she had encountered over the centuries. Loki didn't call Stark out on it because the way he looked at her served to sell their story, and she had to admit, it was also somewhat satisfying to have Stark's attention focused on her. 

What did surprise Loki was the fact that Stark's attention didn't wane when she shifted back into the male form. Loki could tell that Stark had tried hide his interest in Loki on more than a few occasions. Whatever the 21st century media suggested, Stark hadn't even tried to flirt at all. It appeared as though Stark was genuinely trying to be a gentleman, which was more than a little puzzling. 

"Look, just call me Tony," Stark said as they got ready to retire for the night after a full day wandering around New York acquiring various essential items. "If we're going to be sharing this sorry excuse for a mattress, I think we should at least be on a first name basis."

"Your first name is Anthony, is it not?"

"Yeah, but its Tony for short. No one's called me Anthony in years." 

Loki considered the human before him, back in his well-worn jeans and t-shirt. After spending a day with the man, Loki knew there were so much more to Stark than what he'd read in the papers. Despite their situation, Stark seemed more relaxed than he had ever appeared in the various news clips over the last several weeks that Loki could recall seeing. 

Stark had been ruthless in negotiating for the best price for the gold coins. Even without his fame, he had managed to secure a good deal for them, reminding Loki that the man was the head of one of the largest corporations on Midgard. Loki had expected the same attitude when it came to purchasing the goods they required, but he was caught completely off-guard by what actually happened. They had stumbled upon a street market of sorts, with people attempting to sell their belongings that no pawn store would take, and Stark didn't bother negotiating at all. Instead the man had pressed an additional dollar note, not one of Loki's copies, into the palm of the desperate looking pregnant young lady whose household goods they were purchasing. 

When Loki queried the action, Stark merely shrugged and said, "She needed it more than we do." Loki was certain this was a side of Anthony Edward Stark that was unknown to the public of 2011. Perhaps the lack of constant media attention allowed him to be more genuine in his interactions with people. Ironically, it appeared that Stark was more himself while he was playing the role of Edward Smith. 

"It suits you," Loki finally said, watching as Stark stripped down to his t-shirt and underwear in preparation for bed. 

"Of course it does," Stark answered automatically. "What suits me?"

"The name Anthony, it suits you," Loki elaborated. Tony was the party loving playboy genius and reckless superhero; but Anthony was the man behind the facade, the strength behind the armour. It was plain to see for anyone who bothered to look. 

"Okaaay, whatever floats your boat," Stark – no, Anthony – said before collapsing face first onto their newly purchased mattress. "Tomorrow, we're finding a proper bed," Anthony muttered tiredly into the rather flat pillow, but Loki had no trouble deciphering his words. 

"Teach me to use those scanners of yours," Loki said, sliding beneath the thin blanket clad only in his shorts. The mattress was thin, but it was big enough for the two of them to share without invading each other's personal space. "I'll stay here and monitor the rift," Loki continued. "The more data we can collect about its nature, the better chance we'll have to figuring out how to get back to our time." 

"Why are you doing this?" Tony asked, rolling onto his back. 

"Doing what?"

"You're an alien god. Myths about you go back more than a thousand years, so you must be at least that old. In the grand scheme of things, 77 years for someone with your lifespan is nothing. All you have to do is lay low for a few decades and you'll be back where you belong. Slow but guaranteed success." 

Loki hadn't even really thought about that. "If you had the same option, would you take the slow route?" Loki asked in return. 

Anthony took a moment to consider the question. "No," he finally answered. "No, I wouldn't." 

"Why?"

"Because that's the easy way out. It's running away from the problem without even trying to solve it." Anthony paused for a moment before he continued in a softer tone. "A few years ago, I might have done that, taken the easy way out. But I'm not that person anymore." 

Loki almost felt himself recoil at Anthony's words. Running away from the problem, that was exactly what Loki had been doing under the guise of 'getting a new perspective'. Since leaving Asgard, Loki had avoided thinking about his problems. At first, he had been distracted by the numerous advances that humanity had made in the years since he had last set foot on Midgard. Then it was his fascination with Iron Man and Tony Stark. Loki hadn't even really allow himself to think of the events that had driven him away from his home. Shamefully, he was living his life like a mortal, using his magic sparingly so he wouldn't be reminded of his failings. 

"Why am I even telling you this?" Anthony let out a small laugh. "I barely even know you." 

"We're basically stuck here together for the foreseeable future. There has to be at least some topics of conversation. It would be a very boring fake marriage otherwise," Loki replied in what he hope was a light-hearted tone. 

"I guess," Anthony said with a proper laugh this time, marking Loki's efforts as a success. "You still haven't answered my question, by the way."

"I like a challenge," Loki lied. The idea that he could spend the next 77 years not thinking about Odin or his true heritage was suddenly a temptation that a part of him desperately wanted to give into.

No wonder Thor had always been the favoured son. For all his skills as a mage and his intelligence, deep down Loki was a coward who ran from his problems instead of facing them. It hadn't been a conscious decision, but looking back, from the moment he left Asgard, Loki had been running. Even a mortal, of a race Loki had previously considered insignificant, was far more courageous than Loki, a so called god. 

He really was a good for nothing Jötunn monster.


	7. Six

When Tony woke up the next morning, Loki was still fast asleep. Quietly, Tony made his way to the bathroom to take care of business and then headed downstairs to the kitchen. Putting the kettle on for some coffee, Tony let his thoughts drift as he waiting for the water to boil. 

The trip into the city yesterday had been enlightening in more than one sense. It was one thing to read about the Great Depression in history books, but seeing it for himself was something completely different. Even in the more affluent areas of Manhattan, there were store-fronts boarded up. Elsewhere in town properties were marked for foreclosure, and Central Park was basically tent-city, filled with people who had no jobs and nowhere else to go. It wasn't just an economic depression, it was a depression in every sense of the word, with a sense of hopeless desperation permeating the very air they breathed. 

Tony had handled most of their transactions, owing to his 'local knowledge'. Loki, or rather Lucile, intervened only when necessary. When Tony commented on Loki's unexpected talent in negotiation, Loki whispered into Tony's ear, "They don't call me Silver-tongue for naught." It almost broke Tony's resolve, feeling Loki so close to him, her breath ghosting over the side of his neck. 

Tony realised that he had spent the majority of yesterday trying, and failing, to stop staring at Loki. He also knew that Loki knew that Tony was looking, but the god (or was it goddess?) didn't seem to mind. As a matter of fact, she (or was it he? Tony seriously needed to get the whole gender pronoun thing sorted out with Loki) seemed to be rather amused by Tony's reactions. 

As much as Tony like to think that he has a good sense of self-control, he possessed sufficient self-awareness to know that it wasn't true. If he'd met either versions of Loki at a club or a party, they would have ended up naked in Tony's bed before the end of the night. Tony hadn't had many male lovers. Not that he cared about what the media would say, but his high profile meant the pool of candidates willing to risk being outed as his lover was quite small. Add to that the fact that when it came to men, Tony had a very specific type, the pool only got smaller. 

Tony had always had a weakness for long legs and brains in either gender, and both versions of Loki had those in spades. It also didn't help that Loki was now constantly in Tony's space, hanging onto his elbow, and generally playing up the whole newlywed image that they were selling. 

For quite possibly the first time in his life, Tony was trying to be the gentlemen that his mother had finally given up on him being. And he was trying to do it while faced with Loki, Tony's own personal wet dream come true. Not only did Loki ticked all the rather specific boxes on Tony's type for male lovers (tall, lithe, handsome, and smart), he could also _switch genders at will_ and of course the female version was also equally gorgeous. Tony reminded himself that Loki was the God of Mischief, Chaos, and Lies among other things and he (she? It was getting really confusing, damn it!) was probably only stringing Tony along for laughs. Tony had more pride than to succumb to Loki's tricks and to end up the butt of a joke. 

A large part of Tony was tempted to say fuck it and jump Loki, the risk of toadification and humiliation be damned. But the brain in his skull, as opposed to the one further south, was telling him that it was a bad idea. It could be months before they got themselves back to 2011, and if Tony started something that didn't work out, the potential for awkwardness was almost infinite. He even briefly considered suggesting a 'friends with benefits' arrangement, but he honestly didn't know Loki well enough to know how he (she?) would react to such a proposal. Again, the risk of spending the rest of his natural life as a warty amphibian was on the forefront of Tony's mind should Loki be insulted by the offer. 

The kettle on the stove gave a shrill whistle, jostling Tony out of his musings. He went about making himself some coffee the old fashioned way, already missing his coffee machine. Tony was on his second cup of coffee before Loki made an appearance. Loki had a vacant look in his eyes; his expression indicated that while he might be physically up and about, Loki could in no way be classified as 'awake' under any definition of the word. 

"Take that you're not a morning person," Tony commented, trying once again not to stare. Loki had put on a shirt, but had left it unbuttoned. Last night Loki had pretty much bury himself under the blanket after getting into bed, so there hadn't been that much to look at. Now though, even with his hair looking a little like a bird's nest, and with the grumpiest expression Tony has ever seen outside a Disney animated movie, Loki had somehow managed to combine 'hot' and 'adorably rumpled' into one weird category. 

Loki mumbled something that sounded like 'tea' and was rummaging through the stuff they bought yesterday. Taking pity on the half-awake god, Tony got up and gently pushed Loki aside. 

"Go sit down before you end up pouring hot water on your hand instead of in the cup," Tony said, digging out the small tin of tea leaves and the small tea infuser that Loki had insisted upon during yesterday's shopping trip. 

Looking down at the somewhat foreign objects in his hands, Tony vaguely recalled seeing his mother making tea when he was younger. He filled the infuser with about a teaspoon of the tea leaves, dumped it in one of the three mugs they now owned, and poured the hot water over it. He placed the steaming mug on the kitchen table in front of a still bleary Loki, who appeared to wake up a little more at the sight of the tea. 

"Spoon," Loki grunted, and Tony handed over the teaspoon he had previously used. 

Loki took the spoon and started stirring the ball around in the mug for a couple minutes before fishing it out and dumping it into an empty mug Tony provided. He took a sip of his tea with his eyes closed. 

"Who needs ambrosia when you can have tea?" Tony quipped, amused. 

"Too sweet," Loki mumbled into his mug.

"What?"

"Ambrosia."

Tony blinked. "Of course you've had it. So the Greek gods are also real?" 

"The pantheon now exists in a reality that no longer has direct link to Earth." 

"Are they still as nuts as the stories made them out to be?" Tony asked, curious.

"Crazier," Loki grumbled, taking a larger sip of his tea now that it has cooled a little. "Thor used to drag me to some of their parties when I was younger. Hated every single second of it, Aphrodite and Dionysus were the worse. Athena was about the only one with any sense in her." 

Taking a seat, Tony considered Loki's words. "You know, I have no idea if you're being serious here or are you just pulling my leg." Tony paused before continuing as a thought occurred to him. "For someone who considered himself atheist just two days ago, this is quite a lot to take in. Come to think of it, can I still safely call myself atheist? I mean, there's still no evidence that 'God' exists, just technologically advanced aliens that ancient humans mistook for gods." 

"Hmm..." said Loki, but he didn't otherwise respond. 

"You're a ray of sunshine, you know that?"

"You have the advantage of having had your coffee beforehand, so kindly shut up," Loki said, finishing his tea. He finally looked up at Tony, appearing a lot more alert than he had just minutes ago. 

"Anyway, I'm going to head out and see if I can find any of the parts I need. You wanted me to show you how to work the scanners?"

Loki nodded. "When I had a look at the tear last night, the energy that we saw before seemed to have tapered off. It now appears as just a crack in the wall. I need to know more about it before we can even start thinking about how to get back." 

"Yeah," Tony agreed. "I can't get you any of the data that's stuck in the scanner at the moment. I'll show you how it works, and you can take some reading of it being dormant. Once I build us a computer capable of reading the data, we can compare and see what exactly we're dealing with." 

While Tony's scanners weren't that complicated, they weren't as simple as pressing the record button either, and because they were Tony's own creation for his own use, they also didn't come with handy labels on the various buttons and displays. Tony was impressed that it only took Loki a couple of tries before he could operate them without trouble.

"Just… uh, get out of there if it looks like it's going to explode or something," Tony said as he got ready to head out. 

Loki raised an eyebrow, clearly sceptical. "You just don't want to be left alone if the time rift decides to take me elsewhere." 

"Yeah, well, I just don't want you to end up getting sent back to the middle of the ice age or something and freeze to death," Tony snapped, before realising that he was being defensive. For all that Loki's tone had been teasing, he had touched on exactly what Tony feared. 

Unlike Afghanistan, Tony didn't even know if anyone would be looking for him. Would his own future simply be erased? And when the hell had he ended up letting his guard down around Loki anyway? But Loki's teasing and his own fears had sent his defences up again. 

Loki's expression quickly changed from friendly to that of casual indifference, and suddenly Tony could see the prince that Loki had claimed to be; regal and untouchable. Tony realised that it was probably a good time to get the hell out of dodge before he said anything else stupid to piss Loki off even more. 

The first priority of the day, Tony decided, was to find a proper bed or two. After trading in the gold for cash and securing their essentials, there hadn't been much time left for proper furniture shopping and they had settled for the used mattress and crude beddings found at the street market. But after his experience on a similarly thin mattress in a desert cave for three months, Tony could not stand the thought of spending another night on it. 

With Loki's magically replicated cash in hand, it was a simple matter to find a store, pick out two reasonably sized double beds, and arrange to have them delivered to the house the same afternoon. When he stumbled across a Macy's, Tony decided he might as well grab some new clothes, simple shirts and trousers, underwear and such like. He also picked out a few items in Loki's size, then figured he might as well get some for his female alter-ego as well. 

There were some strange looks when Tony was wandering around the women's section so he grabbed a store assistant and explain that he was looking to buy a few items for his wife as a surprise for her birthday. From then on, he pretty much had the undivided attention of the sales clerks. Tony had to guess at Loki's size, but he figured the mage could just alter them to fit with his magic. The clothes were getting delivered as well, and it should've probably come less of a surprise to Tony that the delivery was easily arranged when cash was involved. 

It was after lunch before Tony found a small shop Pepper would probably called a 'junk shop' that looked promising. Auton Parts & Spares Co. looked completely out of place among the affluent household of the Upper East Side, but its location could be why the place was still in business. A bell above the door announced Tony's arrival, though the shop appeared to be unmanned when Tony stepped through the entrance. 

The place could have been easily mistaken for a hardware store if not for the various wires, radio and television parts, random half assembled engine parts, and other mechanical looking bits and pieces lying all over. Tony couldn't quite make out what the majority of them were from where he was standing, but he could already see a few items that looked promising. 

"Be right with you!" A male voice called out from the back of the shop. From where he was standing, Tony could vaguely make out something that looked vaguely like a workshop. Some banging and clanging noises were followed by some rather creative cursing.

"You all right back there?" Tony shouted back. 

"Fine! All fine!" The same voice replied. There was a bit more clanging and then a figure emerged from the door at the back of the shop. The man was probably in his mid-50s, his dark brown hair was receding and had speckles of grey all over. He was also in a pair of overalls stained with rather familiar engine grease, wiping his hands on a piece of rag as he approached Tony. "What can I do for you?"

"Are you the owner?" Tony asked, just to be sure. 

"Yes," the guy replied, taking a closer look at Tony. "If you're looking for work, I'm afraid I can't afford to hire anyone right now." 

"What? No, I'm looking for parts. I mean, I wouldn't mind if you'll just let me hang out around here 'cause I think it'll take me a while to look through what you have here and see what I can use, but you don't have to pay me or anything," Tony babbled. Seeing the rather confused look on the guy's face, Tony decided to switch tactics. "Name's Edward Smith," he stuck his hand out for a handshake. 

"Albert Goldstein," the shop owner shook Tony's hand. 

"Albert, can I call you Al?" 

"Yeah, sure. I'm sorry but what did you say you were looking for?" Al asked, looking at Tony in confusion. 

"I tend to babble a bit, sorry about that. I'm an engineer, I'm working on a private project and I need some parts to build this uh… thing I designed," Tony wasn't quite sure if he should really be imparting knowledge of future tech to anyone in 1934, being vague was probably the best option right now. "Or at least the right material for me to make the right parts. I've looked at a few shops around the city, and so far, this place seems the most promising." 

"I see. An engineer you say?" Al looked sceptical, and all right, Tony probably wasn't dressed anything like any engineer the guy knew, but seriously, what did engineers in the 30s even dressed like? 

Al narrowed his eyes, looking a little suspicions of Tony. "Where did you go to school?" 

"MIT," Tony blurted, haven't really had time to come up with any other backstory. Thank god his alma mater had already been established way back in the 1860s, otherwise he'd have a harder time spinning his story. "Top of my class," Tony added because damn it, he was. 

"Good school," Al nodded in approval, but there was still more than a hint of wariness in his expression. 

"Yeah, the best." Tony grinned. "Look, I can pay for whatever I might end up grabbing, like those copper wires there." Tony pointed to a shelf behind Al. "I'll need quite a lot of those, actually. And a whole load more of other bits, some of which I probably have to custom make for myself, so the workshop you have back there might come in handy if you don't mind me borrowing it some time. I'm more than happy to compensate you for your time and expenses."

"Look, Mr Smith, I'm sure you're a good guy, but I don't want to get mixed up in anything illegal - " 

"Illegal? I'm not doing anything illegal," Tony said quickly. 

"Right, and you expect me to believe that you can actually afford to pay for everything you said you need?" Tony really couldn't fault Al's misgivings. Tony would probably ask the same question if their roles were reversed. "Over the last few years, I've pretty much heard it all, and you don't look like you're one of them locals with a mansion on Fifth Avenue. So no offence, but 'illegal' is the only conclusion I can draw." 

Tony had to stop himself from wincing at Al's reply. One of those mansions on Fifth Avenue was actually his, or rather, it was going to be. "Seriously, nothing illegal. I may not have a mansion, but my wife's family is pretty well off, very old money from England," Tony said, sticking to his and Loki's cover story. It was also probably the understatement of the century if one considers Loki's status as a prince. 

"I don't see a wedding ring," Al was clearly still wary. 

"Yeah, we just got back to New York. Arrived yesterday morning, and pretty much got robbed right off the bat. Took the wedding rings, my watch, some of Lucile's jewellery, and my suitcase. I'm actually wearing our neighbour's clothes right now. But thank god most of our more valuable items were in Lucile's suitcase, and the police turned up before they could get to it," Tony explained. "Look, Al, I understand why you don't trust me. I mean, why should you? I'm just this nut job who just walked in from the streets. You don't know me, but I swear I'm legit. I can bring Lucile tomorrow to meet you if you want to be sure I'm not spinning yarns." Tony had to stop himself from wincing. _Spinning yarns_?! Did anyone even say that in the 30s?

Al scrutinised Tony a bit further. "You just want to hang out around the shop?"

"In a sense. I want to have a look at everything you've got and to put aside items that I think I can use. Plus borrow your workshop for a bit if it's possible. I'm more than happy to help out around the place if you need another pair of hands, in exchange for a bit of a discount on the items I need." 

Al narrowed his eyes, considering Tony's proposal. "If," he said a moment later, "you can answer the technical questions that the next customer who comes in the door might have, you have yourself a deal." 

"Great! I really appreciate this, Al," Tony replied with a grin. "Thank you!" 

"Don't thank me yet. The kid's due in about ten minutes, one of my regulars. Sharp as a whip. But if you went to MIT as claimed, you shouldn't have any problems," Al said. The warning was clear, if Tony was a fraud, he would soon be found out. Tony would be a bit more worried if he wasn't a certified genius with multiple PhDs in engineering and physics. 

Tony spent the ten minutes he had to wait taking a quick look around the shop, which was a bit bigger than he initially thought. He put aside the copper wires he'd seen earlier, and found a half-intact black and white television screen that he could probably use to rig up a display for his sensors. There was also a box of capacitors that would no doubt come in handy; Tony was just starting to look through it when he heard the shop bell ring to signal the arrival of Al's regular. 

Tony could hear Al asking after the guy's family as he made his way back to the front of the shop. From the back, the guy Al was speaking to looked more like a kid, and he was holding out a small box something to Al. 

"You know you don't have to do this, right, kid?" Al said, taking the box. 

"No use sitting on my shelves," the kid replied, and Tony halted his steps at the sound of the voice. "And you know I can afford to." Tony knew that voice. He had never heard it sound so young before, but Tony _knew_ that voice. 

Al let out a small laugh. "Don't I know it," Al looked up and saw Tony, gesturing for him to join them. "Edward, come meet Howie, the young man single handedly responsible for keeping this place in business." 

Howie turned around and Tony froze. Tony Stark never froze, even while staring down the barrel of a gun held by a trigger happy terrorist, Tony never froze. Yet here he was with his throat clamping up, and his chest tightening as though he had trouble breathing. 

"Hello," said the teenager, offering his hand. "Howard Stark." 

Tony reached out and took the offered hand automatically. "Smith. Edward Smith," Tony managed to croak out, fighting the urge to yell at and punch the younger version of his father, neither of which would help endear him to Al. 

Heedless of Tony's internal conflict, Al continued the introductions. "Howie's a bit of a boy genius, always coming up with his own inventions," Al said, his fondness for Howard obvious. "Edward here's a MIT graduate and I'm thinking of having him helping out a little around the shop."

"Really? That would be great!" Howard's interest in Tony was clearly sparked. "What's your degree in?" 

"Degrees actually. Plural. Engineering and physics," Tony couldn't help but boast. There was a sense of satisfaction as he watched his father's eyes widen in awe even as Tony mentally kicked himself for utterly failing at staying low profile. 

"I was just at an engineering conference in Geneva a couple months ago, are you familiar with the work of Dr Abraham Erskine?" Howard asked. 

"German researcher," Tony answered, knowing that he had to tread very carefully. Erskine was the mind behind the super-soldier serum and with Howard's help in the 40s, he was directly responsible for the creation of Captain America, the bane of Tony's childhood. Tony was walking on very thin ice. "I never met him, but last I heard he's looking into some stuff to do with electromagnetic radiation. I'm afraid I haven't really kept up with the most recent research in the field. Family responsibilities tend to come before academic interests in times like this." 

"Yes, yes, Of course. And yes, Dr Erskine has been looking into electromagnetic radiation," Howard nodded enthusiastically. "You must read his most recent paper, it's utterly fascinating. He has a theory that it can be used to improve the human condition. It's got me thinking about what one would require to create such a machine." 

The temptation to discredit Erskine was strong. Tony had spent years in drunken stupor wondering what his life would have been like if his father had not been obsessed with finding Captain America. Now was the opportunity to make sure Captain America would never come into existence because without Howard's help, Erskine would have never gotten the project off the ground in the first place. 

Tony clamped down on his impulse. While Tony had not studied the theory of time-travel in any detail, he had seen enough movies to know that messing with the timeline could have disastrous effects, including wiping his own self out of existence. If Howard hadn't been involved in Project Rebirth, who knew whether he'd end up meeting and later marrying Maria Stark and Tony might end up not even being born in the first place. And there was also the fact that Howard had been a key player in the Manhattan Project, and even Tony wasn't egocentric enough to risk derailing the outcome of World War II by messing with his father's personal timeline. Marty McFly really had nothing on Tony Stark when it came to potentially screwing up the fate of the world via time travel. 

"I'm afraid electromagnetic radiation isn't really my field of interest," Tony said carefully. "I'm a mechanical engineer, manufacturing and all that sort of applied engineering." 

"Oh, I see." The look of disappointment on Howard's face sent a familiar stab of pain through Tony's chest that had nothing to do with the arc reactor embedded next to his heart. 

"Though I do have a pretty solid understanding of thermodynamics, and electromagnetic radiation's just another form of energy." Howard's joy at Tony's words was an expression Tony hardly remembered seeing, so rarely was it ever directed at him. 

"That's great! I mean, if I pass you a copy of Dr Erskine's paper, would you mind sharing your thoughts on it?" 

"Sure," Tony answered, and then mentally punched himself in the face. That's it, Tony clearly deserved to be erased from existence because that was a stupid stupid _stupid_ move; a colossal level of stupidity worthy of Justin Hammer, even. 

"Will you be around tomorrow? I can drop by tomorrow?"

"Well, that would depend on your buddy Al here," Tony replied, turning on his most charming 'need the board member's support so Pepper don't kill me' smile at the shop owner. 

Al narrowed his eyes at Tony, clearly knowing he was being played. "He'll be here," he finally said grudgingly. 

The sixteen year old Howard Stark left the shop ten minutes later with a new box of parts and a wide grin on his face. 

"Thanks," Tony said to Al. "It's a bit later than expected, and I need to get home soon or the missus would start worrying. How much for these?" Tony picked up the copper wires and the television screen. 

"Ten dollars," Al replied after giving the items a quick once over.

"Seriously? Come on Al, you can do better than that, I'm going to be a long term customer here," Tony replied. "Also, we have a deal, remember? Discounted parts." 

"Do you have any idea how much copper is worth? You have at least six feet worth right there, plus the television screen. Even if I give you the screen for free, those wires are still going to cost you $7.00." 

"Ok, fine, let's make it $7.50? My wife's family might be rich, but we did just get robbed yesterday," Tony wasn't above playing the pity card under the circumstances. Given that he was going to be hanging around the shop for at least the next few days or weeks even, he couldn't risk giving Al the fake replicated money.

"Fine, but if you're getting that much of a discount, I want you back here at 8:30 tomorrow morning. I have some heavy equipment I need to get sorted out back and could use another pair of hands." 

"I'll be here," Tony replied. He even gave Al a genuine smile as he handed over the cash.


	8. Seven

Loki's initial plan to spend the day meditating was shot to hell even before Anthony left the house. Loki had to admit, Anthony's casual mention of ice age and freezing to death hit a sore spot and he found himself unable to concentrate. 

It didn't help that a few hours after Anthony left, Loki was interrupted by a knock on the door. It turned out to be Maria O'Donnelly, their next door neighbour, who turned up with a plate piled high with pasta. Loki was glad that he had decided to answer the door in the guise of Lucile, and for the sake of politeness (she had loaned Anthony some of her husband's clothes after all), Loki had to invite Mrs O'Donnelly into the house. 

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Maria asked. She was probably around the same age as Anthony, with greying hair and signs of wrinkles around her eyes. 

"No, not at all. I was just making a list of things we still need around the house," Loki replied. "I apologise for the state of the place, we haven't really had time to sort out anything beyond the immediate necessities. Can I offer you a coffee or tea?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. I don't want to get in your way. I know how it's like moving to a new place. I'm sure you'll be settled in no time. Where's Edward gone then?"

"Off looking for work," Loki said with a smile. "Didn't even sleep in this morning despite our rather horrendous journey from England."

"Good man," Maria nodded in approval. 

"Yes, he is," Loki agreed, playing her role of a beloved wife.

"Listen, if you need anything, just let me know. God knows Owen and I needed all the help we could get after we got married. Do you have any family here?" Maria asked, in a motherly tone.

Loki shook her head. "No, my family's back in England. And Edward's the only one left of his family after his mother passed a few years back. My family don't actually approve of Edward, especially after he lost his job in London. The company he worked for foreclosed. "

Maria gave Loki a sympathetic look. "I understand. Owen and my family didn't approve of us either. Traditional Italian and Irish, we were expected to marry within our community, but we fell in love with each other. It's been twenty years, and we're couldn't be happier. Everything will be all right, you'll see." 

"Thank you," Loki replied, not sure what else she could say. 

"I'll let you get back to it then. You and Edward should join us for dinner once you're settled."

"That would be lovely," Loki said with a smile, she saw Maria to the door. "Thank you for the pasta, saves me from worrying about dinner tonight." 

"You're very welcome, dear. I'm home most days, just come knock on my door if you need anything." 

"Thank you," Loki said once more before Maria left. 

After having some of Maria's pasta for lunch, Loki was about to give the whole meditation thing second try when there was another knock at the door. This time furniture delivery. Apparently Anthony had been shopping for beds, and given the state of Loki's back this morning, she couldn't fault Anthony's choice of priority. 

She directed the delivery men to set up the beds in the two bedrooms upstairs and moved the thin mattress into the study. As she did so, she carefully turned the various scanners to be invisible to the movers. 

With the new beds set up, Loki realised that Anthony had forgotten to buy new beddings, which meant they still only had one thin blanket between them and one flat pillow each. 

"Men," Loki grumbled, making a note to remind Anthony when he returned. 

The furniture delivery men had barely left when there was yet _another_ knock on the door, and Loki had to stop herself from screaming at the constant interruption. Her frustration was somewhat soothed when she saw just what was being delivered. Clothes, for Anthony himself, and Loki. She couldn't help but smile when she found that Anthony had been thoughtful enough to include both male and female clothing for her. She spent almost an hour trying them on in both her forms. The sizing was surprisingly accurate, and the styles and colours Anthony picked were also flattering for both of her forms. 

It was late afternoon when Anthony finally returned, carrying with him a rather large coil of wires and what looked like an old display screen of sorts. 

"Oh, they delivered the clothes already? That's good," Anthony said when he saw Loki in her new outfit. "How's the sizing? I had to guess." 

"Almost perfect," Loki replied. "You know, you didn't actually have to buy an entire wardrobe worth of clothes."

"Was it that many?" Anthony asked, putting the wires and screen down in their somewhat empty living room. "I just picked out a few essentials," Anthony shrugged. 

"In that case, your idea of what's essential is somewhat different from the norm."

"This coming from a Prince?"

"I have lived as a mortal would for the last few months." 

"Loki, about this morning - " Anthony started.

"I over reacted. I apologise," Loki interrupted. 

"No, it was my fault. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." 

"I know I upset you with my teasing," Loki said, confused at Anthony's words. "Your reaction was expected given the context. I'm not sure what you're apologising for." 

"Wait a minute, I thought you were pissed at me for snapping at you this morning?" 

"I wasn't angry," Loki replied, unsure about how much she wanted to reveal to Anthony. "I was perhaps a little taken aback by your words, but that was it." 

"Oh, good then," Anthony said seemingly happy to drop the topic. "Any development with the crack?"

"None that I can tell. Though I've been too busy throughout the day entertaining our neighbour and receiving deliveries from your shopping spree to actually pay much attention to it," Loki replied wryly. "And I should remind you that you've forgotten to buy beddings. We still only have two sorry excuses for pillows and a blanket." 

"Oh right, yeah. I didn't even think about that. Jarvis and Pepper usually take care of the whole everyday living thing."

"Of course they do. If you're interested, Maria next door dropped by with some pasta earlier. It's on the kitchen table." 

"Yeah, a bit later maybe," Tony replied. He sat down on the floor in the living area and started to dismantle random bits of the display screen with his bare hands. 

Anthony appeared lost in his own thoughts. As he worked, he became much quieter than the man Loki had come to know over the last couple of days. Loki had been quite certain that it was impossible to stop Anthony from speaking, but it appeared that she had been wrong.

"Is something the matter?" she asked.

Ripping out some circuits, Anthony stared at the broken screen seemingly without really seeing it.

"Anthony?"

"Sorry, just thinking about something," Anthony said, putting down the broken screen and standing up. "You mentioned food?" he asked, clearly avoiding the issue. 

"Kitchen table. I can warm it up if you like." 

"Yeah, that'd be great," Anthony replied with a small smile. "Thanks."

Maria had made more than enough pasta for the both of them even after Loki's lunch, and while there wasn't a convenient microwave, Loki was more than capable of warming up the food with her magic.

"Your search for electronics was fruitful?" Loki asked after they had finished their meal. Anthony was washing up the dishes and Loki had decided to switch back to his male form, given that it was unlikely anyone else would come knocking on their door this late in the day.

"Yeah, found this shop on the Upper East Side that was still in business and actually look like they have quite a few bits that I need," Anthony said. "I made a deal and I'm going to have to go in early tomorrow morning to help out Al, the owner. We'll be paying discounted prices for his goods in exchange for me lending a hand here and there."

As he put the last of the plates away, Anthony wiped his hands dry on his pants.

"Dish towels," Loki muttered, adding another item to his list.

"So what else? Beddings, dish towels, and…?"

"Normal towels. The ones I conjured last night have already disappeared," Loki admitted. All these everyday living issues would be much simpler if his magic wasn't so fickle. On the other hand, they probably wouldn't need to set up an actual household if Loki had complete control over his powers. Loki let out a sigh before continuing with his list. "Wardrobe, or at least somewhere to put the clothes you bought, refrigerator if they have it in this era and if you want some actual food in this house. I'm not sure what sort of takeout facilities are available. Some other furniture to sit on wouldn't go amiss. A workbench for all your equipment because I don't think this kitchen table can withstand the weight of anything more than a few plates and mugs without collapsing."

"What? No additional pots and pans, baking tray, rolling pin and the lot?"

"I think the two pots we have now are more than sufficient, unless you envision yourself doing more cooking?" Loki replied. Then Anthony's jovial tone registered and Loki's eyes widen in sudden horror at his new realisation. "By the Norns, you've turned me into a…. a _homemaker_!"

The peals of laughter from Anthony at Loki's realisation, while annoying, also managed to chase away the sombre atmosphere around the house.

"This reminds me," Anthony said, digging through his pocket. "I should probably put a ring on you."

"I beg your pardon?" Loki asked, taken aback.

"Wedding ring. Al was quite suspicious about the lack of wedding ring when I dished out our cover story. Luckily we had the excuse of being recently mugged," Anthony explained, as he produced two plain gold rings. "Gold plated, not actual gold," he said, picking one up and putting it on his left hand. "I will never live it down if it ever gets out that I bought gold _plated_ jewellery, but they should do for now. I had to guess your ring size, but I figured you could magic it to fit."

Loki nodded. "Is there any particular way I should be wearing this?" he asked, picking up the remaining ring.

"Left hand, fourth finger. That's what we call the ring finger."

"And wearing a ring on this finger symbolised the wearer is espoused?"

"Most of the time, yes. Sometimes the female would also have an engagement ring, those usually come with diamonds or some other precious stones. As far as I know, traditional wedding rings tend to be simpler in design than engagement rings."

"For a self-declared playboy, you know a fair bit about wedding rings," Loki mused, sensing that there was probably a story behind Anthony's knowledge. The light flush on his cheeks at Loki's words only served to confirm his theory. "Oh? Do tell," Loki grinned.

"Nothing to tell!" Anthony's denial came a little too quickly and a little too ferociously for it to be true.

"Have you forgotten that I am also the God of Lies?" Loki's grin widened. "Who was the fair maiden who captured the playboy's heart so thoroughly that he contemplated marriage?"

"I was young, and stupid, and she was a French supermodel. Why do you think I learned French?"

"You learnt a language to impress a girl?"

Anthony shrugged, clearly still embarrassed as he was not looking directly at Loki. "Like I said, I was young and stupid. Thank god Pepper stopped me before I really made a fool out of myself."

"What happened?"

"The usual. Turned out she'd been cheating on me the whole time. She was in it for the publicity that would help boost her career, and of course, the money."

"Ah, of course. There have been a number of suitors in my past with similar ambitions. Not as numerous as Thor, but I am only the second Prince after all," Loki shared. "I was married once."

"Take that it didn't work out?"

"It was a political union, as most royal marriages are. After a few years, she decided she could no longer put up with my ways and we parted company."

"Your ways?"

"The ways of a mage. In Asgard, magic is considered a female art. Men are supposed to be warriors and the use of magic in the battlefield is considered cowardly. Never mind the fact that for years, I've bested everyone bar Thor without the aid of magic on the training grounds. I would quite possibly be completely ostracised if not for my title and status." It was something Loki thought he had come to accept after so many centuries, but the frustration he felt as he spoke told him otherwise.

Whether it was because the revelation of his origin stirring things up or whether it was because he had never really accepted the attitude of the Aesir, Loki wasn't sure. Everything he had once simply accepted has now been called into question. Maybe it shouldn't have been so surprising that he had chosen to run instead of facing reality.

"That's just stupid," Anthony commented bluntly. "I've been called a cheat at school just because I'm smarter than my accusers can ever hope to be. It's jealousy, pure and simple. I bet if they could use magic like you, they'd be all over it."

"No doubt," Loki agreed, glad to have Anthony's support. "What vexed me most wasn't the fact that magic users were looked down upon, it’s the double standards. The vast majority of people seemed to have forgotten that Odin himself is a powerful sorcerer, and that Thor's power to summon storm and lightning is also magical in origin. No one dare call the mighty Thor or the All-father Odin womanly or paint them as cowards."

"Loki, sorry about earlier, that whole housewife joke. I didn't realise – "

"It's all right." Loki waved away Anthony's apology. "We are only actors in our current roles. I know you don't really think of me as such."

"Honestly, I have no idea what to think of you," Anthony admitted. "Which brings me to another thing I've been meaning to ask you about. The whole shape-shifting thing, I know you can be male or female, and you've also mentioned you could be neither."

"Yes," Loki said, suddenly leery over the direction Anthony's line of questioning was leading.

"Do you identify as male, female, or neither? 'Cause my brain is getting seriously confused about which gender pronoun to use."

Loki chuckled, half in relief and half in amusement. Over the years, many had been curious about Loki's shape-shifting abilities and most of the questions had been distasteful to say the least. Occasionally there were technical enquiry from fellow sorcerers looking to master the technique themselves, but the vast majority had been crass, if not downright obscene.

"It's not funny!" Anthony protested. "You know at Macy's today when I was looking for clothes? I must've zoned out for a couple of minutes trying to figure out whether to refer to you in my head as she or he. Then I remembered you saying that it could be neither at the same time which got me thinking about whether there was a pronoun for that and things just got way too confusing. I swear half the store must think that I'm nuts."

"Do you know, in the last thousand years, you're the only person in the entire Nine Realms who had bothered to ask me that?" Loki replied, feeling a rather unfamiliar sensation of warmth gathering somewhere in the region of his chest.

"Oh god," Anthony's eyes widen in obvious mocked horror. "The whole universe out there is filled with idiots, isn't it?"

"That is unfortunately true," Loki confirmed. "And to answer your question, I predominately think of myself as male. Though, I do refer to myself as female when I'm actually in my female form."

"Okay, that makes sense. We'll just go with male in general and go with the flow with the rest depending on the situation?"

"That's acceptable," Loki agreed, wondering how many more surprises Anthony had in store for him. 

Loki realised that he was rather eager to find out.


	9. Eight

Tony stared at the scene in front of him with a growing sense of dread and panic. The formerly empty living room now had a couch, coffee table, and a _colour television_. A peripheral part of Tony's brain noticed that the TV was playing an episode of _Bewitched_ , of all things, but more importantly, there was a family of three in the same living room who were looking at Tony in fearful horror when he stepped into the house.

"Who are you and what do you want?!" The father demanded, gathering his wife and daughter close to him.

"Who… what?" Tony stammered, utterly confused. 

"Please, we don't have anything valuable," the mother, looking like a classic 60s housewife begged, clearly frightened and fighting back her sobs. The little girl just outright started crying.

"What? No no no…! I'm no... Loki!" Tony called out, looking around frantically trying to find any sign of the other man. If the time rift had activated while he was out, it could explain how a family from the 60s could be transported back in time. "Loki!" Tony called out again, making a move to search the house but his way was blocked by the father who had stepped away and was now quite bravely confronting Tony. 

"I don't know who you are or who you're yelling for, but get out of my house and leave my family alone!"

"Listen, you clearly have no idea what's going on, but you've been sent back in time," Tony tried to explain. "There's this time rift in one of the rooms upstairs, that's how I got stuck here in the first place."

The man frowned at Tony. "Are you on drugs? Elizabeth, call the police!"

"No! I'm serious! You and your family has been sent back in time, its 1934 outside and there's a time rift upstairs, did you notice the crack in the wall? That's what it is!"

"Well, spaceman, if we are in 1934, care to explain how the TV is still receiving broadcast signal showing the latest episode?" the man demanded, clearly convinced that Tony was a mad man or some junkie who happened to wandered into his house.

"What?" Tony took a closer look at the TV from where he was standing, sure enough, it was still playing one of the coloured episodes of _Bewitched_. "Wait wait wait, that's not possible, how is that… no, it can't be…" Tony tried to come up with a theory. Could he have been transported 30 years forward in time? But he had been nowhere near the time rift, which as far as he and Loki had been able to determine, was a localised phenomenon. On the other hand, there was also a whole lot that they don't know about the rift and how it worked, so it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibilities. Though, if that's the case, where was Loki? He hadn't said he was going out today, so if anything happened with the time rift, Loki would have been caught within its field as well. 

"This can't be the 60s," Tony muttered, and that was when he heard it. 

The sobbing housewife was no longer sobbing, in fact she was laughing. The man blocking Tony's way and the little girl faded in a shimmer of green and gold along with the TV. Before Tony's eyes, the retro 60s looking couches transformed into the more classic 30s design. As a matter of fact it was the exact design that Tony and Loki had picked out just the day before at the one of the furniture stores.

Glaring at the still laughing figure on the couch, the mirth in the woman's eyes suddenly seemed familiar. "Loki!"

"The look on your face!" she gasped in between bouts of laughter, even as she transformed back into her normal male form. Loki was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his cheeks.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" He pointed a finger at Loki, walking into the living room and sitting down on the other end of the couch. Despite being annoyed at having fallen for the trick, Tony felt himself smiling at the sight of Loki laughing. 

"It was funny," Loki said, still trying to rein in his laughter.

Tony let out a chuckle despite himself. "Okay, I'll give you that. It was kinda funny. No one's been able to pull one over me so thoroughly for a long time. So is this it? I've officially been pranked by the God of Mischief?"

"Call it payback," Loki replied, grinning and wiping away his tears.

"Payback? For wha… oh come on!" Tony protested when he finally connected the dots. "You said you knew I didn't mean it and to be fair, I didn't actually call you a housewife, you were the one who jumped to conclusions!"

"But you never denied it. Besides, I have a reputation to maintain," Loki smirked. "And it gave me a chance to test the extent of my control over my magic."

"And?"

"Let's just say that breaking down with laughter wouldn't have previously been a problem," Loki admitted with a dejected smile, letting out a sigh.

Not wanting to lose the light-hearted atmosphere and the rather amazing sight of a happy Loki, Tony searched for an out. " _Bewitched_ though, seriously? How do you even know that show when you had no idea what _Back to the Future_ was?" Tony asked, making Loki laughed again, much to his satisfaction.

"I didn't spend _all_ my time with my head in a book while I've been on Earth. And it was either that or _Days of our Lives_ , which to be frank, actually made me consider taking over the planet and putting every one of you humans out of your miserable existence. So you should be thankful to Samantha and Darren for stopping me," Loki said, green eyes sparkling with amusement. "And I thought it was rather appropriate under the circumstances."

The next few weeks went by relatively quickly, with Tony turning up at Al's shop most mornings, lending the older man a hand when necessary, but generally just spending time sorting through the various components in the store. The house was now more liveable after it'd been semi-appropriately furnished. They had split their purchase across a few different stores and mixing up their real cash and replicated cash to reduce the likelihood of being found out just in case the magicked money disappeared.

At first, Tony had suggested that they should split the household chores equally between them, since Loki seemed rather sensitive to the whole issue of being labelled a housewife. But after the first couple of days, Loki pretty much got tired of Tony's general incompetence around the house and just took over.

"I have no idea how you managed to survive this long without knowing how to make the simplest food," Loki had complained when Tony inevitably screwed up frying eggs.

"I'm disgustingly rich."

"I'm a _Prince_ and I know how to cook."

"Well, give me another thousand years, and I'll probably learn to cook somewhere along the way," Tony quipped, more than happy to hand things over to Loki. "How do you know how to cook anyway?"

"If you'd ever tried Thor's cooking – and I use that term lightly – while on one of his quests, you would learn how to cook purely out of self-defence." Loki answered as he expertly flipped the omelette. From then onwards, Tony was relegated to tea and coffee making and washing up duties. 

Tony had taken over the master bedroom since it was the only room other than the living area that was big enough to fit the mini-workbench he bought, plus all the various parts he'd been bringing home from Al's. Given Maria's propensity to randomly stop by every couple of days just to check up on them, sometimes with her husband Owen tagging along, it was out of the question to keep the workbench in the living area. 

Most evenings after dinner, they would end up in Tony's room with Tony explaining what he was trying to do with a specific component. Sometimes Loki would educate Tony about the theories of magic, and they would attempt to extrapolate and combine the meagre bits of information they had on the temporal rift. While the portable scanner on Tony's cell phone had picked up quite a bit of data from the moment when they had been transported back in time, there was only a limited number of analyses Tony could perform on the phone without a link to Jarvis. The StarkPhone might have been the most powerful cell phone on the planet even back in 2011, Tony still didn't have access to the data on his scanners to do a proper comparison and analysis of the patterns of the energy levels. The lack of standard, non-Jarvis dependant wireless transfer capabilities in his scanners was a serious oversight, and he didn't want to risk possibly overloading his phone by setting up a direct wired transfer from the scanners to the phone. 

There hadn't been any substantial activity from the rift since it had sent them back to 1934. They had both noticed an occasional faint glow emitting from the crack at night, and Tony's sensors would pick up some low level activity during the day as well, but nothing came close to the intensity of the energy spike that had send them back in time.

Despite their circumstances, Tony felt relaxed for the first time in quite a while. There was no super-villain to fight, no cameras were being shoved in his face every time he stepped out of the house, no annoying board members demanding his explanation over some random alleged screw ups. He missed Pepper, Rhodey, and Jarvis, even DUM-E and U, but other than that, Tony was pretty comfortable where he was. He had a problem to work on which kept him occupied, but there was no real sense urgency in what he was doing, no deadline to meet that they know of, and he was happy to just go with the flow. 

Much to Tony's relief, he and Loki hadn't shared a bed or even a room since that first night. Tony's attraction to Loki hadn't really abated, but for some unknown reason, the actual impulse to jump Loki had subsided somewhat after the first few days and Tony had grown content just spending time with him, listening to him talk. He'd even got Loki to start calling him Tony instead of his full name. He'd be lying if he didn't admit that he still wanted Loki, but again, there was no sense of urgency and Tony was happy to just let things simmer. 

Howard had dropped by Al's shop and passed on Dr Erskine's paper to Tony as he promised. As Tony had suspected, it was a paper he was already familiar with; he'd read it just before he started his undergraduate degree at MIT. Howard had returned a few times since then, asking Tony about his opinion, and Tony knew that he was running out of excuses about not having time to read the paper.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Loki asked. He was half sprawled on Tony's bed, the only other piece of furniture in the room other than the wardrobe. 

Tony knew he'd been uncharacteristically quiet tonight as he tried to figure out how to avoid changing the timeline by accidentally saying something to Howard that he shouldn't. "You remember when I mentioned that I had no desire of running into the younger version of my father?" Tony finally said, figuring he might as well tell Loki seeing as he'd be affected by whatever that was going to happen as a result of Tony's actions. 

"You saw your father?"

"Saw him, spoke to him, and now I'm trying to figure out how not to accidentally erase myself from existence and/or end the world as we know it," Tony let out a humourless laugh. "Turns out he's a bit of a regular at the shop. He asked me for my opinion on this rather revolutionary scientific article," Tony tossed the stapled stack of papers that had been sitting at the corner of the workbench to Loki. "I've been avoiding telling him anything because, hey, the world might end if I somehow contaminate the timeline with what I really think." 

"Surely the consequences wouldn't be so dire?"

"For someone else, maybe not. But my family? Overachievers that we are, we never do anything small." Tony abandoned the wires he had been fiddling with; he hadn't really been paying attention to what he was doing anyway. "I don't know if you know anything about 1940s Earth, but in a few years, the planet's is going to go through what we call a world war, and it's exactly what it says on the tin. War breaks out all over the place and it only ended when America dropped two brand spanking new atomic bombs on Japan. Howard was a key figure in the development of the bombs, among few other things. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't been part of that project." 

Tony twisted around in his chair to look at Loki. "Did you know that he was one of the founding members of SHIELD? Which means if he took a different direction, SHIELD might not exist at all and god knows what would've happened to your brother when he was banished to New Mexico."

Loki stood up and Tony watched as he came to stand next to Tony. Moving some of Tony's equipment aside, Loki sat on the workbench so he could look down directly at Tony in his chair. "I gather that your relationship with your father was not as ideal as the media portrayed it to be?" he asked. 

"Understatement of the century," Tony snorted. He rubbed a hand through his hair, messing it up and trying to figure out how to make Loki understand. And why was he even telling Loki about this? Tony couldn't even really talk to Rhodey about most of it and Rhodey was actually there when some of the shit between Tony and Howard went down. 

"For as long as I can remember, Dad's work always came before me. I spent years trying to imagine what life would've been like if he'd put me and Mom before his work," Tony paused, considering his next words. "The temptation now to maybe nudge him in that direction..." Tony trailed off.

Loki didn't say a word; he simply waited for Tony to work things out himself. After a couple of minutes, Tony looked up at Loki. "But I can't, can I? I know I'm a selfish bastard, but as much as I hate to admit it, Howard's work was important, _is_ important. I would literally be dead by now if it wasn't for his research." Tony couldn't help tracing the outline of the arc reactor underneath his shirt; the memory of discovering Howard's research that had ultimately saved his life at the forefront of his mind. 

"Then you already know what you must do," Loki said quietly. 

"One of the rare occasions that I can remember him actually talking to me instead of yelling at me," Tony continued, remembering a time when he hadn't actually actively hated Howard. "It was just before I graduated high school. I was filling out college applications even though I was only around 14 at that time and had more than a few offers already by that point. Anyway, he was talking to me about that damn article," Tony pointed at the stack of papers Loki had left on the bed. 

"Howard just went on about how Erskine's theory opened his eyes to the possibilities of improving humanity via science, or some crap that my teenage self really wasn't that interested in. And then he told me to find a mentor when I get to college because it was important to have someone guide me, as though that wasn't his job as my father in the first place. He told me if it weren't for this guy he met as a kid, he probably wouldn't have... " Tony stopped as previously unrelated events connected in his brain and he was left with a realisation that his life was in fact, a science fiction movie. "Fuck me."

"Tony?"

"That son of a bitch, he... I...." Tony looked helplessly at Loki. "He named me after me!" Tony finally blurted. 

"You're not making sense, Tony."

"You know my full name? Anthony Edward Stark?" At Loki's nod, Tony continued. "Anthony was Dad's second name, and I always thought Edward was for Edward Stark, an uncle of mine that I've never met and I'm not even sure actually ever existed, but fuck! Howard totally named me after that mentor of his, a.k.a. me, Edward Smith." Tony buried his face in his hands. "This is so screw up," he said into his palms. Slumping forward, Tony faceplanted onto the surface of the workbench. 

"This should make your conversation with your father easier, shouldn't it?" Loki asked, and Tony felt Loki's fingers on his head, gently combing through his messed up hair, like an affectionate Lucile would sometimes do when they had company. "You already know exactly what to say to him." 

"How is this my life?" Tony moaned.

"It is an extraordinary life, Anthony," Loki said and Tony felt the workbench wobbled as Loki hopped off, his hand sliding down to the nape of Tony's neck, his thumb rubbing slow circles on Tony's skin. "Cherish it," Loki whispered, almost directly into Tony's ear, his breath tickling Tony's ear. Tony was still trying to figure out what was going on when there was a slight pressure on the crown of his head that he realised belatedly was a kiss. But by the time Tony looked up, Loki was already shutting Tony's room door behind him. 

"Loki! What was that about?!" Tony called out, but there was no reply. Finding out he was meant to be his father's mentor and that he was actually named after himself was crazy enough, and then Loki had to go top it off with being weirdly affectionate. 

Looking back down at his workbench, Tony resisted the urge to repeatedly bang his head against it in the hope that it'll either wake him from this weird ass dream, or jostle something in his head so that his world would start making sense again. "How is this my life?"


	10. Nine

The kiss had been a moment of weakness on Loki's part. Anthony had looked so confused and lost that Loki had given into his desire to comfort him. And like the coward he was, Loki had run afterwards, heedless of Anthony's call. 

Loki slammed his bedroom door shut and flopped onto his bed still fully clothed. Burying his face into his pillow, Loki let out a frustrated scream that was muffled by the bedding. 

In the weeks since they'd been sent back in time, Loki had barely come any closer to regaining full control of his magic. No matter what he did or how much he meditated, he just could not muster sufficient concentration. It also seemed like Loki had thrown himself so fully into his role as Lucile Smith that he'd gone a bit too far; playing the role of Edward's beloved wife even while they were alone. 

Turning around so that he was lying on his back, Loki stared at the ceiling and contemplated what his life had turned into. Being stuck helpless in the past with nothing much to distract him was probably Fate's way of telling him to stop being a petulant child and actually face his problems to get his life back. But the real question was, did Loki actually want his life back on Asgard? 

For centuries, there had been rumours that Loki coveted the throne, but that could not have been be further from the truth. Loki valued his freedom, so much so that he had found ways to travel between realms without having to use the Bifrost, enabling him to come and go as he pleased. Having the throne would mean being stuck on Asgard and Loki would be crazy to ever want to chain himself to such a huge responsibility.

"Have you ever wonder what it'll be like if you weren't a prince?" Loki had asked Thor once. There had been a feast earlier, celebrating Loki's coming of age, but growing wary of the rowdy crowds, Loki had snuck away as soon as it was polite to do so and ended up in the observatory, admiring the stars. He wasn't surprised that Thor had managed to track him down. Somehow his brother had always known where to find him.

"No," Thor had answered. "Why would I do that?"

Loki turned to look at Thor standing at the entrance looking slightly confused at Loki. Judging by the colour of his cheeks, Thor was also quite possibly more than a little drunk.

"Not once?" Loki pressed on.

"No." Thor shook his head and stepped into the room. He sat down next to Loki, his movements unsteady.

"I have."

"What is it you imagine life would be like then?" Thor asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Free," Loki answered with a wishful smile. "I can do anything I like, be anyone I want to without the eyes of the people constantly on me, judging me for matters I have no control over. I could travel to any of the realms out there," Loki gestured to the stars outside. "And do what I want."

"We do travel to the other realms," Thor protested.

"Yes, on your foolhardy quests, but never purely for the sake of travel, or to seek further knowledge of the universe."

Thor had looked at Loki then, unexpectedly contemplative. Loki blamed it on the mead Thor had consumed at the feast. "I do not think I will ever understand the joy you find in your books and pursuing knowledge just for the sake of knowledge, brother," Thor had said before he passed out, slumped sideways onto Loki's shoulder, leaving Loki to drag his sorry unconscious arse to bed.

Loki's desire to be free had not changed since Frigga's revelations, and now there was even less chaining him to Asgard and its people. He had responsibilities in Court, being the second prince, but if Loki was honest, he had been performing his duties for years only out of loyalty to his family. It had been a long time since Loki felt he owed the people of Asgard anything, and now, if they ever found out that he was Jötunn, he knew for certain that even his titles would not save him from the judgement of the people and they will not be kind. No, he didn't owe the people anything. But Odin, Frigga, and Thor, they were a different matter altogether.

Thor was… Thor. The thorn in Loki's side for as long as he could remember, constantly dragging him away from his books and getting them into trouble. But for all that Thor was a clueless oaf who was in no way ready to take the throne, none of what happened was his fault. Thor had been lied to as much as Loki, and unless Frigga changed her mind, he was still living a lie, thinking that Loki was his brother. 

Loki couldn't help but shudder when he remembered his plan to make Odin see that Thor wasn't ready for the throne. A Jötunn runt letting frost giants into the royal palace, in the eye of the All-father, it would probably have been an unforgivable act of treason. If Loki had known how precarious his position was, he probably would've thought of another way. Was this what Frigga meant when she said it wasn't too late? Had she somehow foreseen Loki's plan and stopped him before he could see it through?

_You are no monster._

Loki desperately wanted to believe Frigga, but he wasn't sure how he could after being lied to his entire life. 

"Some God of Lies I am," Loki muttered to himself. "More like God of Fools." 

Mindless blood thirsty savages; that was what they were taught about the Jötunn – monsters capable of birthing other monsters regardless of their gender, and eating their young should they be deemed weak. A part of Loki recognised that some of the stories he was told as a child were probably made up by adults trying to get their children to behave, but surely, even such tales would contain some seeds of truth? 

A tentative sounding knock on the door snapped Loki out of his contemplations.

Anthony. The mortal brave enough to chase a god down even after he'd ran. 

"Time to stop running," Loki said to himself before calling out. "Come in."

Loki sat up on his bed as Anthony stepped in, not bothering to shut the door behind him. He looked about as uncertain as Loki felt, and for a moment, they just looked at each other in silence.

"So..." Anthony finally broke the silence. "This is not awkward at all." 

Loki snorted, but otherwise didn't say anything. 

"Look, you can't just do something like that and then just… disappear," Anthony took a couple steps forward. "Come on Loki, throw me a bone here. I have no idea what's going through that head of yours." 

"Neither do I," Loki replied. 

"You know, you never did say why you've been hanging out on Earth the last few months, or why your control of your magic's shot to hell." So astute to have picked up on Loki's careful omissions. "I did just spill my guts to you half an hour ago about all my daddy issues," Anthony pushed on. 

"Has that whet your appetite for more then?" Loki asked. 

"If it'll help you work through whatever it is that's bothering you, I'll be willing to sacrifice myself to more emotional drama worthy of the best day time soap," Anthony's tone was flippant, but Loki could tell that the offer was genuine, no doubt fuelled in part by Anthony's own curiosity about Loki's past. 

"My hero," Loki said, sardonic. 

"Iron Man to the rescue!" Anthony flashed him a cheerful grin, but his eyes were understanding, and given what Loki now know of Anthony's relationship with his father, maybe he could indeed understand. 

Loki let out a sigh. "You might as well take a sit. This is going to take a while." 

Anthony sat at the foot of Loki's bed, his back resting on one of the bedposts. When Anthony looked at him expectantly, Loki felt as though he was looking into a mirror, the conflicting emotions he felt for Odin and Frigga reflecting back at him through Anthony's eyes. 

"I recently found out that I was adopted," Loki said started. "All my life, I'd wondered why I never fit in, and I had thought it was because I'm a mage, and while that was true to a certain extent, the adoption answered a lot of my question," Loki paused, collecting his thoughts. 

"Thor had always been the favoured child, and I don't begrudge him for he is quite annoyingly lovable. Not even I am immune to his charms despite his rather brutish behaviours. Since we were young I've always had mother's favour while Thor had had father's favour, in that sense I suppose we have always been equal." Loki admitted. "For more than a thousand years they've hid this from me, letting me believe in a lie. Odin, my adopted father, would've kept on lying to me if my mother hadn't told me." Loki took a deep breath. "Since learning the truth, I'm no longer sure who I am anymore, and the uncertainties is the reason I'm losing control of my magic. I can't concentrate enough to sustain the spells as I once could, or have the finer control over it that I once had." 

"Part of me is so angry at them, at Odin especially," Loki continued. "For keeping this from me, for _still_ wanting to keep it from me. But another part of me remembers the happier times and wonders how I could still love someone who'd lied to me all my life." 

"Well, you know my problems with Howard. I'm 41 years old for fuck's sake," Anthony swore. "I'm Iron Man and Iron Man really shouldn't still be looking for his father's approval like some needy child, yet here I am."

"And I'm a god who is more than a thousand years old, your point being?"

"Parents suck?" 

Loki laughed, a genuinely amused laugh that made Anthony smile, the sight of which made Loki's heart skip a beat. Never had Loki thought that the weeks of observations and research he had put into trying to figure out Tony Stark would cumulate to this. Like the group of teenage girls who frequented Loki's favourite cafe, he seemed to have gone and fallen for his own pop idol, and meeting him in person hadn't been a disappointment. Only, of course, it wasn't the Tony Stark portrayed in the media that Loki was falling for, but Anthony.

"You're not who I thought you'd be," Loki confessed. "From all the news and interviews I've seen you in, I thought – "

"That I'd be an ass?" 

"Yes. A little like Fandral perhaps, he's one of Thor's band of friends. Charming, quite egotistical at times, and would sleep with anyone who catches his fancy."

"Gee, thanks," Anthony drawled. 

"He is quite handsome though, and probably the only one in the group with at least some wit about him. Though he is prone to give in to peer pressure, which is not something you appear to have a problem with," Loki finished. 

"No, can't say I do," Anthony paused as he considered Loki. "Was he your ex?" he finally asked. 

So very astute, his Anthony. Loki caught himself; since when had he started to think of Anthony as his? Where was this coming from? This trust he seemed to have placed in Anthony, so much so that he was already confessing to his deepest secrets. 

"We were involved for a while," Loki admitted. 

"Is that why…"

"No, you're not Fandral," Loki shook his head. "Beyond the superficial, you're nothing like him, Anthony. He's… he's too Asgardian, for the lack of a better word, for it to ever work out between us. He tried, for my sake he tried, which was more than anyone else has ever done for me. But there are some things that just couldn't be changed. We parted amicably about ten years ago, and I still consider him a friend."

"Wait a minute, you said all the interviews you've seen me in… were you reading up on me back home?" Anthony asked, surprised, and a little pleased. 

Loki felt his cheeks heat and curse the fact that he had no control over his involuntary physiological reactions. 

"Oh my god, you were totally reading up on me!" Anthony exclaimed, his delight unmistakable. 

Loki swore that Anthony would never discover that Loki had moved to New York because of him; Loki would never hear the end of it otherwise. "Your arc reactor," Loki said instead. 

"What? This old thing?" Anthony looked down at his chest and tapped the object in question. 

"It's very similar to a form of magical energy that I'm familiar with, and I was curious." 

"Typical, you were only stalking me for my tech." Loki would have thought he'd offended Anthony if not for the small grin the man sported. "Listen," Anthony continued in a more serious tone. "Adopted or not, you're still Loki. The same God of Mischief that turned my tools invisible, tricked me into thinking that I was sent back to the 60s, and made shit I say literally come to life, which by the way I still haven't forgive you for, and I _know_ you stole that idea from somewhere."

Loki grinned a little at the memory of that particular prank where he turned any idiomatic like phrases Anthony said into life. They had ended up with a few cats and dogs, and a goat for a couple of days until the magic Loki used in their creation faded. The goat had ended up chewing through some of Anthony's notes. 

"You're the same smart and curious-to-a-fault Loki, who could flay mortals lesser than me just with your words. It doesn't matter who your real parents are, you're still you." Anthony finished. At some point, Anthony had moved closer to Loki, and he now rested a palm on one of Loki's hands in a gesture of support. 

Loki shook his head in denial, Anthony didn't understand, _couldn't_ understand. It wasn't just because he was a stolen child, it was his entire _being_ that was screaming out at him, telling him that he was wrong, that he was the monster that parents tell their children about at night. 

"There's something else?" Even though Anthony phrased it as a question, it was actually more of a statement. 

"It's not only the adoption, I…" Loki started. "I am…I.... " He choked, unable to bring himself to even say the word to make Anthony understand. It was then that Loki realised, as much as he had thought about the fact that he was Jötunn, he had never said it out loud, never admitted it outside his own head, and it appeared that he _literally_ couldn't. 

Belatedly, Loki realised he was gripping Anthony's hand rather tightly, and he loosen his hold, but didn't let go. Anthony didn't comment on it, instead he scooted closer to Loki. 

"It's okay. It's okay," Anthony said, voice soothing and he enveloped Loki in an embrace. Automatically, Loki raised his free hand and gripped onto the front of Anthony's shirt. "You don't have to tell me if you're not ready," Anthony continued softly. "God knows there's more than enough shit in my life that I have trouble talking about." 

Anthony made to move away after a while, but Loki tightened the grip he had on the other man's shirt. "Stay." Loki hated the way he sounded, uncertain and weak; pathetic really. But Anthony didn’t' say anything except to turn his head a little and pressed a gentle kiss to Loki's temple, an impression of Loki's own earlier gesture. 

"Get the lights then, would you?" Anthony requested, as he expertly manoeuvred them into a comfortable position on the bed. 

Finally loosening his grip on Anthony's shirt, Loki flicked his hand and sent the room into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to finish posting this before Christmas, so fingers crossed that I'll make that deadline! Thank you all for the comments and kudos so far! The response has been beyond my wildest dreams!


	11. Ten

When he woke up the next morning, Tony found himself doing a rather good impersonation of an octopus. Loki was pretty much wrapped up in his arms, with his head resting in the crook of Tony's neck. Sometime during the night, they must have moved because Tony didn't remember their legs being tangled up together when he fell asleep. 

Tony carefully tried not to jostle Loki or wake him as he pulled away to get a better look at the sleeping deity in his arms. Tony knew that Loki had been frustrated by his lack of progress in re-establishing his control over his powers, but never in Tony's wildest thoughts would he have guessed the reasons behind Loki's lack of progress. Loki had hidden his troubles well because Tony had not suspected at all.

"God of Lies, indeed," Tony murmured, giving into his urge to place a gentle kiss on Loki's forehead. After what happened last night, he figured it was allowed. 

Looking at Loki's peaceful form, Tony couldn't help but wonder what was it that Loki couldn't tell him. What was so terrible that would make a thousand year old trickster god tremble with anxiety? 

As though sensing Tony's thoughts, Loki frowned in his sleep, and his breathing sped up; a sign that he was waking. 

A part of Tony was tempted to avoid the awkward morning-after conversation and slip out of bed before Loki woke up. They might not have had sex, but what had happened last night was probably more intimate that any sex Tony had ever had. In the end, that was what stopped him. Tony knew that he might be a dick, but he wasn't that big of a dick. Loki had trusted him last night with his secrets, and Tony suspected that didn't happen often. He could at least do Loki the courtesy of being there when he woke up. 

However, all thoughts of awkwardness fled Tony's mind when Loki's bleary green eyes finally blinked open a few minutes later. _I could get used to this_ Tony thought before he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Loki's. Loki went completely still for a few seconds before he returned the kiss. 

"Good morning," Tony said when he pulled back. 

"Hmm," Loki replied. His lips curled into a pleased little half smile that was begging to be kissed, so Tony did just that, and Loki hummed with pleasure. 

It felt good to finally give in after weeks of looking but not touching. Tony wasn't sure whether it was the effects of delayed gratification or whether it was something else, but kissing had never felt so satisfying. 

Tony felt Loki's arm pulling their bodies closer, one of his long legs bending so he could hook his ankle onto Tony's knees. Loki pressed himself against Tony, letting Tony feel his arousal. Tony moaned into the kiss, feeling his own cock hardening in response. 

"Fuck," Tony swore, breathless from the kiss. 

"That's the general idea," Loki said, equally breathless. 

"Shit, darling, I can't," Tony said, the endearment rolling off his tongue naturally as he rested his forehead against Loki's. "I promised Al that I'll be there early this morning to help with a shipment he has coming in. We can't afford to piss him off right now. God knows how Howard would react if I offend his buddy." 

"We have time," Loki said, thrusting his hips forward, making them both shudder at the sensation of their erections rubbing against each other through the clothing they fell asleep in the night before. 

"No we don't. Not for what I want to do to you, with you," Tony said. "Nowhere near enough time. After how long I've waited for this, I want to take my time." 

Pulling back a little, Tony found Loki looking at him with an unreadable expression. "What?" Tony asked. 

Loki shook his head and ducked back in for another kiss. This time, there was nothing gentle or tender about it; it was downright filthy, with Loki coaxing Tony's lips apart with his tongue and licking into Tony mouth as though he wanted to consume Tony whole. Tony vaguely recalled Loki mentioning being known as 'Silver-tongue' before all thoughts fled his brain. 

"That should be enough of a reminder for you to come home soon," Loki all but purred, as he pulled away from Tony and untangled their limbs. 

"Wha…" Tony blinked at the space where Loki had been mere seconds ago, his brain still trying to catch up with what was happening. "Where are you going?" He called out to Loki who was getting out of bed. 

"Breakfast. You have to go to work, remember?" Loki replied with an innocent grin that Tony now knew better than to believe in. 

"You are an evil, wicked, bad sexy person," Tony groaned, flopping back down onto the bed.

"Trickster god," Loki reminded Tony with chuckled before leaving Tony to his own misery. 

Tony had barely managed to get himself to the shop on time, and it would have been a gross understatement to say that his mind was elsewhere for the rest of the morning. 

"Edward!" Al shouted. 

"What? Don't have to yell, I'm right here," Tony replied. 

"I could've been fooled. I've been calling you for the last five minutes. You've been sitting there with a stupid grin on your face the whole morning." 

"No I haven't," Tony denied. Okay yes, he'd been sitting at the same spot going through the same box for probably the last half an hour, but there was no grin, stupid or otherwise. 

Al raised a sceptical eyebrow at Tony, then smiled. "Lucile?" 

And for the life of him, Tony could help the aforementioned stupid grin from making an appearance even if his life depended on it. To top it off, he could feel his cheeks heating up in embarrassment, something he thought he'd outgrew decades ago. 

Al huffed out a laugh. "Yeah, I was newly married once as well. It might be a while ago, but I still remember how that felt." 

"No, it's not that. It's…" Tony considered his next words. "Since we moved back from England, I haven't seen her like she was this morning. She's been frustrated with a lot of things, but I think…" 

"She's getting used to life in New York? It's been almost three months, which sounds about right, I think." 

"Yeah, maybe," Tony shrugged. 

"It's good that she's settling down. Now stop day dreaming about your wife and come help me with the refrigerator out back." 

"Yes, sir!" Tony replied with a cheerful salute.

Tony's good mood lasted until just before lunch when Howard Stark stepped into the shop, and Tony had to fight every single instinct in his body to not avoid him. 

"Edward!" Howard greeted him cheerfully. "I'm glad to see you, and please don't tell me you still haven't gotten around to the paper." 

"Actually, I read it last night," Tony replied, reminding himself of his conversation with Loki. Howard's excitement was not something that was ever directed at Tony before, and while a part of him couldn't help but resent his father for it, the young man who had lost his parents too soon was relishing the positive attention. "I think there're some merits to Dr Erskine's idea." 

Their following discussion led to Al chasing them out of his shop, telling them they were frightening away potential customers. 

Howard ended up dragging Tony to a restaurant a few blocks away for lunch so they could continue their conversation. 

"So, you really think that science has the ability to change our lives for the better?" Howard asked in between bites of his burger. 

"Sure," Tony replied. He paused for a moment, trying to think of an example that didn't involve any post-war scientific advancements. "Look at the invention of the car. No more horses around stinking up the place. Of course, there's also a flip side to it. If more and more people start using cars, I'm thinking sooner or later, the engine fumes might end up causing the same problem it's hoping to solve." Tony said, hoping he was being vague enough.

Howard nodded thoughtfully. "I don't think anyone thinks that car engine fumes would be a problem." 

"It's the law of unintended consequences. Most people wouldn't have the foresight or the required knowledge and skills to consider every possible outcome. The invention of an object may solve problem X, but no one thought that it would actually create problem Y. There's also the fact that it might be used for other unintended purposes." Tony paused again, stopping himself just in time before he could go into the whole weapons protecting soldiers yet also killing innocent civilians speech. 

"It's like fire," Tony finally settled on saying. Fire should be generic enough. Never mind that it was an outright metaphor for weapons. 

"Fire?"

"Yeah. It's basically a good thing right? It provides warmth, light, something to cook your food and so on. But in the wrong hands, it can also kill and cause destruction," Tony elaborated. "It's the same with science." 

"So, you're saying that no matter the initial intention of the scientist or the purpose of an invention, in the wrong hands science can also do harm?" 

"Absolutely." 

It was late in the afternoon by the time Tony finally came to his senses and made an excuse to Howard. The more they spoke, the higher the chance of Tony altering the timeline, but once the discussions started, he just couldn't help himself; having Howard's entire attention focused on him was addictive. 

Within seconds of opening the front door to the house, Tony had an arm full of Loki. She practically jumped him even before he could shut the door. She kissed him in a way that would probably get them arrested for public indecency if Tony hadn't kicked the front door shut. 

With thoughts about Howard still on the forefront of his mind, Tony tried to refocus his attention on Loki. Other than the softer curves beneath his hands, kissing Loki in her female form wasn't that much different from kissing Loki in his male form. At least it seemed that way from Tony's limited experience in both so far.

Something about Tony's mood must have shown because Loki pulled back just a moment later, looking at Tony quizzically. 

"Dad dropped by the shop earlier," Tony explained, still holding Loki close by her waist. 

"Are you all right?" 

"Yeah," Tony replied, resting his forehead against Loki's. "Can we not talk about this now?" 

"Okay," Loki agreed. "Hang on." 

It was the only warning Tony got before he felt the tell-tale pull of Loki's teleportation magic. When he looked up again, they were in Loki's room, conveniently right next to the bed. 

"That," Tony said, voice low, "Was seriously hot." 

Loki giggled, pulling at Tony's clothes, and Tony quickly got on with the program. 

"How do you want me?" Loki asked, voice husky. 

"However I can have you," Tony replied, unzipping Loki's skirt. 

"No, I mean, do you want me in my current form, or would you prefer if I switch?"

Something in Loki's voice made Tony stop what he was doing. Looking into her eyes, Tony could see the uncertainty she was trying to hide. "However I can have you," Tony repeated. 

Loki's gaze never left Tony's. It was as though she was looking for something. "You truly mean that, don't you?" she finally said. 

"I do. It's your call. Male, female, I'll take whatever I can get, whatever you want to give, as long as it's you, I don't care how you look like or what equipment you might have." Tony paused. "Though, I draw the line at horses." 

The last sentence startled a laugh from Loki, and there was a familiar green/gold shimmer as the body beneath Tony's hands changed. "That myth is a complete and utter lie," said Loki, back in his male form. "I have never been impregnated by a stallion, nor have I ever given birth to an eight-legged horse." 

"Oh, good. Cos I'm not quite sure what I'd do with an eight legged baby horse," Tony said, finding himself now looking _up_ at Loki. "Okay, this rapid change in height thing, not complaining, just needs some getting used to. But enough talking," Tony tossed his shirt carelessly over his shoulders, looking at the tousled figure before him. Loki's shirt was only half undone and he still had his pants on. That was just not acceptable. 

"Get naked."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a feeling some of you might now have the urge to kill me for leaving that there... Have patience, this fic will earn its explicit rating soon. ;)


	12. Eleven

Loki hadn't actually believed that Anthony could be attracted to both his male and female self. Although Anthony had not been subtle in admiring Loki's female form early in their acquaintance, nor had he seemed to be put off by Loki's male form the morning they first kissed, Loki had simply assumed Anthony had an unstated preference. However, Loki found it difficult to abandon the idea that everyone had a preference, even if they claimed they didn't. Especially if they claimed they didn't. 

So Loki hadn't believed Anthony until the moment he shifted back to his male form right in front of him, and Anthony hadn't even paused before he stripped Loki of his clothes and pulled them onto the bed.

"Wanted you the moment I saw you," Anthony had moaned against Loki's lips, as he lay on top of him. His hands stroked every inch of Loki's skin that he could reach, as though starved for contact. 

"I noticed."

"Thought you were going to turn me into a toad if I tried anything." 

Loki laughed. He couldn't recall ever laughing in bed with any of his former lovers, not even Fandral. It felt good; freeing, and it was definitely an experience that he was keen to repeat. "No, never a toad. You're too handsome to be a toad. A horse maybe." Loki teased, and Anthony let out a laugh of his own. "Or maybe an ass." 

"Are you making fun of my height? And no turning me into anything." Anthony protested. He gave Loki's neck a gentle nip with his teeth, and the action made Loki shiver with pleasure. "At least not without prior consent," Anthony added after a pause. 

Deciding that he'd had enough of Anthony's teasing, Loki hooked his leg around Anthony and flipped their position so that Anthony was on his back with Loki straddling his hips. 

"Okay, that was disconcertingly hot." 

Looking down at Anthony, Loki considered the mortal before him. "You would, wouldn't you? Let me transform you into something else." 

"I'm not ashamed to admit that I've wondered what it's like to have sex as a woman," Anthony admitted. "I mean, multiple orgasms, who wouldn't want to try that? As long as it's not a permanent change, that is." 

Loki laughed again. "You are crazy, do you know that? And absolutely wondrous." Loki leaned down and captured Anthony's lips in a kiss to stop the response that was no doubt on the tip of his tongue. Anthony opened up readily for him, groaning deep in his throat when Loki licked into his mouth, chasing the taste that was uniquely Anthony. 

Much to his satisfaction, it wasn't long before Loki had Anthony reduced to a non-verbal quivering mess. They had ended up missing dinner. 

Twice. 

Looking now at the sleeping form of Anthony in his arms, Loki couldn't help but think how lucky he was to have met him. Anthony had accepted parts of Loki that even most of his family couldn't. But just how far would that acceptance go? Because no matter how Loki looked at it he was still Jötunn, and Loki didn't think he had it in him to ask Anthony to accept that the person he bedded was in fact a monstrous beast.

Gently, Loki ran his fingers through Anthony's hair. It had grown a fair bit since their arrival to 1934, revealing some unexpected curls that now fell beyond the collar of the shirts that Anthony favoured. While Anthony didn't seem bothered by its length, it would probably need a trim soon if he didn't want to end up looking like a vagrant. 

"You're thinking too loudly," Anthony mumbled sleepily, eyes still closed. 

"Am I?" 

"Yep," Anthony said, snuggling closer to Loki. "Can hear you all the way in my dreams." 

"My apologies then, for disturbing your sleep," Loki replied. 

"What's on your mind?" Anthony asked, blinking up at Loki, eyes getting used to the dim light cast from the small lamp by Loki's bed. 

Loki shrugged. "Nothing. Just letting my thoughts wander." 

Anthony made a thoughtful noise and a comfortable silence settled upon them. Loki thought that Anthony had fallen asleep once more until he started speaking. 

"Talked to Howard today," Anthony started, his warm breath tickling Loki's collarbone where his head rested. "Had an actual scientific discussion with him that didn't end up in a screaming match and I was actually enjoying myself for a while there." 

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"I don't know. Its making me wonder if this was how it is supposed to be. How it might have been if Howard hadn't been so focused on his work and I hadn't been such a stubborn bastard." Loki could hear the regret in Anthony's' voice. "Or if he and Mum hadn't died when they did, maybe I would've gown up enough to have some sense and we could've salvaged something out of the wreck." 

"Perhaps this is Fate's way to stop you wondering?" Loki said, finding his fingers once again combing through Anthony's hair. 

"I don't believe in Fate."

"An opportunity then. The point remains; you now have a chance to allow yourself to regain some of what was lost. Not many are as lucky." 

Anthony disentangled himself from Loki's arms and pulled back so he could properly look at Loki. "You know, I sometimes have to remind myself you're older than you look." 

Loki quirked an eyebrow. 

"That was actually quite a sensible advice," Anthony elaborated. 

"I should remind you that mortals of days past used to pray for my guidance," Loki replied wryly. 

"Did you ever answer? And how does that work anyway? Prayers?" 

"People pray, I hear them, and decide whether to answer," Loki answered. 

"Seriously though, how does it work? I mean like now, if I was at the shop and wanted to tell you something, would you hear it if I prayed?" Anthony asked. 

"No," Loki shook his head, thinking about how best to answer the question. "I guess you could say that prayers contain a form of psychic energy that I am able to detect. The stronger their belief in me and the more sincere they are in their prayers, the stronger the energy. When they invoke my name, I suppose you can say that it's a resonance of sorts. Does that make sense?" 

"Kinda," Anthony said with a frown. "So it wouldn't work like a cell phone?"

"No."

"But let's say I'm in some sort of deep trouble, Iron Man level of trouble and I need your help and you're off in Asgard or somewhere else, would it work then?"

Now it was Loki's turn to frown. "I'm not sure," he answered honestly. "I admit, it's not a situation I've encountered before, but I don't see why not."

"But I don't have to believe in your existence, I _know_ you exists. And if my life is on the line, I'm definitely going to be sincere. I admit that yes, given what we know of Xavier and his lot, there is such thing as psychic energy, but how does that transmit all the way to another planet? Also, resonance? What sort of resonance?" 

"It's essentially different frequencies in the psychic field. Like sound waves, each sound has its unique frequency. It's the same with psychic energy. Without a thorough understanding of your Midgardian sciences, I'm afraid I really can't really explain it in your scientific terms in any further detail."

"So, it's a wave form? And the harder someone thinks about you the stronger the wave form and the more hope there is that the prayer will reach you?"

"In a sense, yes." 

"Say that I buy what you're saying, how is it possible to travel such a vast distance?" 

The rest of the night was spent talking about the mechanics of prayer among other things. Loki was happy to satisfy Anthony's endless curiosity about the workings of magic, despite Anthony's constant protests that it shouldn't be possible according to the laws of science. It had been some time since anyone had challenged Loki's own understanding of magic as thoroughly as Anthony did. Anthony finally fell asleep once more, merely hours before dawn. Loki however, remained awake as he considered where he was now. 

After Frigga had first told him the truth, Loki had imagined a number of eventualities, but becoming enamoured with a mortal man had never crossed his mind. Yet here he was, dangerously close to falling completely in love with Anthony even though he knew that it could never last.

They hadn't actually spoken about what was happening between them, but Loki held no delusions. Anthony might find Loki attractive, and he might have accepted his shape-shifting, but that didn't change the fact that Anthony didn't do relationships. However long they were stuck back in the past was all the time Loki would have with the mortal. Smiling sadly, Loki resigned himself to once again having his heart broken; he was after all, used to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...probably not the sex scene some of you were hoping for? :P 
> 
> *runs away*


	13. Twelve

The summer months had given way to autumn, and now the crisp chill in the air signalled the arrival of winter. The time rift remained largely dormant, with the occasional spike in energy levels. Tony couldn't make sense of any of the information they collected without a working computer, and they made Loki confused more than anything else; something about the energy was not natural in a way that he couldn't even explain to Tony. 

Tony's progress in building his own computer was a lot slower than he had anticipated. In the end, Loki's now-pretty-much-useless iPhone had to be sacrificed to the God of Computer Science, because as good as Tony was, he just didn't have the appropriate equipment to manufacture his own computer chip. The touch screen display was also cannibalised and turned into an input terminal of sorts, and the bluetooth function would also theoretically allow Tony to transfer the data he'd captured on his phone to the computer once that was completed or vice versa. 

"This isn't going to work," Tony said to himself as he stared at the pile of circuits in front of him that bears no resemblance to any modern idea of a computer. 

"What's not going to work?" Loki asked as he strolled into what had been Tony's bedroom. It was a full time workshop now that Tony was spending his nights in Loki's room.

"This," Tony pointed at the mess on the workbench. "I actually need to build a casing for it, or at least some sort of stand for the screen because otherwise it won't stand up properly, and leaning it against the wall dislodges some of the wiring at the back of it." 

"No breaking and entering required then? Just a day or so at Al's workshop?" Loki asked, coming to stand behind Tony, his hands resting on Tony's shoulders, gently kneading away the tension. 

"Yeah, we need a bit more copper wire and some circuit breakers anyway," Tony sighed, leaning into Loki's touch. "No need to potentially derail the progress of science by stealing from university research labs. Frankly, between your crap of an iPhone and my most awesome StarkPhone, we currently have more computing power than the rest of the planet combined."

"Will it be enough for your purposes?"

"It should be, once I get the data off those scanners. Any progress on your end?" Tony asked, tilting his head back to look at Loki. 

Loki's silence was enough of an answer for Tony, and Tony grabbed hold of one of Loki's hand before he could completely pull away. Tony knew that Loki has been quite frustrated at his lack of progress with his magic. 

There had been some improvements, but from what Loki told him, they weren't anywhere near sufficient for the fine control required for tackling the time rift. Books had been appearing and disappearing all over the house for the last few months, but Loki had deemed Earth's knowledge in the art of magic to be woefully inadequate, and they were not much help. It didn't stop Loki from borrowing more books from libraries all over New York, in the hopes that maybe something in them would trigger an idea, and Tony suspected, also to pass the time since he was sure the copies of Mark Twain and Byron that he spotted among the piles of books really wasn't magical research material. 

"I'm not quite ready on my end either," Tony said, carefully avoiding putting any pressure on Loki. From what Loki had told him about magic, rushing things tend to have rather disastrous consequences. It was not unlike taking dangerous shortcuts in engineering projects. Tony twisted around in his chair to face Loki. 

"Look, it's barely lunch time, weather's good, what say we head into town, grab something to eat, and see if Al's in a good enough mood for me to borrow his workshop for a few hours on a Saturday?" 

"Very well," Loki let out a put upon sigh that Tony could tell was mostly for show. 

Getting out of the house was probably a good idea. To minimise any impact they might have on the timeline, Tony had basically been heading to the shop and back most days, and Loki had mostly shut himself in the house unless Maria dropped by or he had to go to buy food or visit the library. And as Loki's control over his powers returned, he sometimes didn't even bother going out for food. He simply summoned or conjured their meals from who knew where. Being cooped up in the house for days on end probably wasn't doing him any good. 

In the guise of Edward and Lucile Smith, they grabbed a light lunch at a small family run restaurant downtown, and decided to take advantage of the sunny November day and walked most of the way to Auton Parts & Spares Co. Half way up Fifth Avenue, Tony acting on impulse, took Loki's hand in his and entwined their fingers. Loki gently squeezed Tony's hand, but she did not otherwise say anything. 

Tony smiled to himself. For the first time in his life, he could walk down a main street in New York hand in hand with a lover and he didn't have to worry about having his photo taken and having rude questions shouted at him. 

"What are you smiling about?" Loki asked, looking at Tony curiously. 

Tony shrugged. "Nothing. Just… happy, I guess. Sun's shinning, I'm walking down Fifth Avenue with the most gorgeous woman I know, and no paparazzi or fans chasing me down. What's not to be happy about? I can even do this," Tony pulled Loki towards him and placed a chaste kiss on her lips. "And no one bats an eye." 

Loki pushed Tony away with a laugh. "Stop it. Have you no shame?" 

"You have met me, right?" Tony teased as they continued up towards East 70th Street. 

"Unfortunately, I have," Loki replied with a dramatic sigh. 

"Unfortunately? You wound me, darling. Absolutely wound me," Tony exclaimed with equal dramatic flair, as he beat his free hand on his chest. "Might just as well stab me in the heart, why don't you?" 

Loki let out another laugh at Tony's theatrics and rolled her eyes in fond exasperation. Their light-hearted banter continued the rest of the way until they arrived at the shop. Instead of the main door, they went down the alley that lead them to the shop's backdoor. Al actually had an apartment above his shop which he used to share with his wife before she passed away a couple years ago. Climbing up the fire escape, Tony knocked on the door to the apartment, hoping that Al was indeed home. 

"Ed," Al greeted as he opened the door moments later. "I didn't expect to see you today."

"Sorry to drop by unannounced, just wondering if you'd mind if I borrow your workshop for the afternoon? I need to either hammer or weld a frame together, I'm not quite sure which yet," Tony explained. "Oh, and Lucile wouldn't mind having a look around as well. I know you've been wondering whether she even exists for the last few months." Tony looked over the first floor railing and waved down at Loki, who waved back at Tony and Al. 

"Ah, finally, the mysterious Lucile," Al said with a smile, peering over the edge. "Let me get the keys." 

"Thanks, Al! I'll wait for you down below." Tony replied, making his way back down. 

After introductions were made, Tony left Loki and Al to socialise while he thought about the casing his makeshift computer terminal would require. In the end, he settled for a support frame instead of a full casing, purely for the ease of access to the various internal parts. So intent was Tony on his project that he didn't even hear Al or Loki calling out to him. Only when Loki's fingers pressed into the tensed muscles of his shoulders did Tony emerge from his thoughts. 

"He does that to you too, eh?" Al asked Loki. 

"All the time," Loki replied, shooting Tony a long suffering look. 

"What? I'm sitting right here you know."

"Yes, and you might as well be on the moon for all the attention you're paying," Al said. 

"Love, Al needs to leave in a bit," Loki said, her thumbs still gently massaging Tony's shoulders. "Are you almost done?" 

"Half an hour? An hour tops?" Tony replied, looking at the half constructed frame on the workbench. 

"In that case," Al tossed Tony a set of keys which Tony caught out of reflex. "You can lock up when you leave."

"You're trusting me with your keys?" 

"Don't make me regret it. And you're a lucky bastard to have found someone like Lucile here," Al said as he made his way to the back exit. "I trust that she'll keep an eye out on you if nothing else. If you'll excuse me, I'll take my leave. Ed, I'll see you Monday morning first thing. I need to move the auto parts section and my old bones can only handle so much."

"Yeah, see you then."

"It’s a pleasure. Mrs Smith, you two have a good weekend." 

"Charming man," Loki commented once Al left. 

"To you, maybe. He just orders me around like his own personal minion most of the time," Tony replied, getting back to his work. 

It was just past dinner time by the time Tony was done and the night chill had set in. Not wanting to trek all the way back to Brooklyn in the cold while carrying a bulky makeshift computer frame, Loki teleported them home. The mood was playful when they finally went to bed that night, and Tony couldn't help thinking that he would never get tired of the sight of a happy Loki. 

It wasn't long before the arrival of Christmas, and Tony stopped heading into town so frequently. The contrast between the glittering shops filled with holiday decorations and the thousands of homeless across the street in Central Park was too much for him to bear. Intellectually, he knew there was nothing he could do for these people, but it didn't stop him from feeling helpless. And, now that he'd got most of the parts he needed, Tony was trying to decrease the number of interactions he had with Howard. 

Since their discussion of Erskine's paper, Howard had dropped by a number of times to ask Tony's opinion on all manner of physics and engineering subjects. Tony had responded as much as he could within the parameters he'd set himself. Even then, he couldn't help feeling a sense of satisfaction at having his father's complete attention. 

"Who the hell goes on to have a better relationship with their parents after their death than when they were alive?" Tony had groused one evening to Loki after yet another gratifying discussion with Howard. 

"Like I've said, Tony, you're special. And stop taking my daughter's name in vain." And just like that, the conversation was derailed in favour of Tony finding out more about Loki's daughter. 

Tony had turned down Al and Howard's invitations to spend Christmas with their extended families. As interesting as it would be to meet his grandfather, Tony really didn't want to risk doing something stupid and altering the timeline – he was already risking enough as things were. Loki also turned down Maria's invitation to join her and Owen to spend the holidays at their son's home in New Jersey. Tony had never been a great fan of Christmas, and Loki was an ancient Viking god who barely had any idea of what Christmas was all about. 

It started snowing two days before Christmas, and on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Tony dragged a reluctant Loki into their backyard that was covered in half a foot of snow. 

"You know, I haven't built a snowman since I was a kid," Tony said as he started compacting snow together. 

"Asgard doesn't have winters like this. Its climate is quite mild and we only get snow every few years," Loki said. She was in her female form, not wanting to risk being seen by other neighbours who might actually be around during the holiday season. "I've always liked winter."

"Really? I prefer summer myself, but snow can be fun," Tony asked, surveying the pile of snow that he was going to use for the base of the snowman. "Come on, help me build the head." 

They managed to finish building the snowman, decorated with random twigs Tony found around the yard, and Loki's scarf. Loki was looking doubtfully at the completed snowman, her cheeks rosy from the cold and their exertions; it was the most beautiful sight Tony could ever recall seeing. 

"I love you," Tony blurted before his brain actually caught up with his mouth. Even as he said the words, Tony realised he had been in love with Loki for quite some time now. 

"Don't say that." 

Tony could see the moment Loki's defences went up as her expression turned apprehensive. It wasn't quite the response Tony was hoping for, especially since Loki was now turning and practically running back into the house. 

"Why not?" Tony called out as he followed Loki. He caught up with Loki in the kitchen. He was back in his male form, a clear sign that he was feeling vulnerable. 

"Because you have no idea what you love," Loki replied, his voice soft, looking at Tony as though his world was on the verge of ending. 

" _What_ I love? Darling, you're not making sense here. I know you've been – "

"You don't know everything about me," Loki interrupted. 

"I know that! You're almost as old as Christianity, of course there's stuff about you that I don't know!"

"So don't presume that you understand anything!" 

"Then tell me! How can I begin to understand if you don't tell me?!" Tony snapped. On some level, he recognised that Loki was lashing out, that he was pushing Tony away on purpose, but Tony wanted to know why. 

Tony took a deep breath to calm himself. Getting into a fight now was probably not the best way to get Loki to talk. "I know there are things in your past that you haven't been able to tell me about, and I haven't pushed. No matter how frustrated you got and no matter how badly I wanted to know, I never pushed. But you can't now turn around and use that against me, that's not fair."

Tony still couldn't quite decipher the expression on Loki's face, but after what seemed like forever, the fight seemed to drain out of Loki and he slumped into one of the chairs by the kitchen table. "No, I don't suppose it is." 

"Loki?"

"You already know that I was adopted. The circumstances surrounding my adoption, however..." Loki trailed off, looking up at Tony with such sorrow that Tony couldn't stop himself from closing the distance between them and gathering Loki into a hug. Loki's arms automatically reached up and encircled around Tony's waist, his head resting against Tony's chest, right beside the arc reactor. 

Slowly, Loki told Tony a tale of a great war between two races, how Odin found him and the Casket of Ancient Winters, putting an end to the war. Throughout it all, Tony did not relaxed his hold on his lover, knowing deep in his heart that Loki needed him now more than ever. 

"I'm not Aesir. I'm.... I..." Loki stuttered, reminding Tony of the night so many months ago when Loki had not been able to vocalise any of this. 

"Jötunn?" Tony prompted gently.

"I'm a monster," Loki's voice was so low that Tony doubt he would've been able to hear the declaration if Loki hadn't been literally pressed against him. "A... Jötunn beast," Loki finally choked out, breathing ragged. "Anthony, you have accepted me regardless of my gender, which was more than I could hope for. I can't ask you to – "

"You don't have to ask me to do anything, Loki. I don't care what form you take, you know that. You've always known that."

"You have never met a Jötunn."

"Yes, I have," Tony answered, pulling back and looking pointedly at Loki. "I'm looking at one right now." 

"It's not the same!" 

"Why not? You're either the same savage beast that you claim all Jötunn are, which I call bull shit because you're one of the smartest person I've ever met. Or not all Jötunn are as you claim, and there must be others who are like you. You can't have it both ways," Tony pointed out. 

"I was raised in Asgard!" 

"So? If I brought a baby monkey home and raised it as I would a human, doesn't mean that it would actually become human. You said so yourself, the Jötunn and the Aesir were in a deadlock in your last war. If Odin hadn't found the Casket or whatever when he found you, the outcome of the war might have been different and Asgard might have actually lost the war." Tony really wasn't quite sure what he was doing, but there were so many holes in Loki's argument that he hoped pointing them all out to him might help him see sense. 

"Do you think an army of mindless monsters would be capable of giving Odin so much trouble? I may not know the Jötunn, but I know war. If there hadn't been generals, tacticians, and all sorts of other military logistics operations involved, do you think they would have lasted as long as they did against Odin's army? Are the savages you have in mind capable of this level of organisation and strategic thinking?"

Tony could see the conflict in Loki. The rational part of his brain was no doubt telling him Tony was right, but would that be enough to overcome years of prejudice instilled by Asgard's society? Tony swore if he ever met Loki's adopted parents, they would hear exactly what he thought about their parenting skills. 

"You don't have to ask me to accept you," Tony said softly, gently kissing Loki's temple. "Because I already love you as you are, no matter what skin or form you choose. It has never mattered to me." 

"They're hideous." 

"Have you even seen yourself in your Jötunn skin?" More silence that was enough of an answer to Tony's question. "Can you shift?"

"Why?"

"Because you can't then accuse me of not knowing what I'm talking about. If you want me to know what I'm talking about, you'll have to show me." 

Loki did not reply, but his grip around Tony's waist tightened, as though afraid that if he let go of Tony, he would never get him back. After a few minutes, Loki loosened his grip and pulled himself away. He squeezed his eyes shut. 

Unlike the usual transformation, there wasn't any outward green/gold shimmer, just a deep cobalt blue that spread across Loki's skin until all hints of his Aesir pink skin was gone. There were thin lines that ran across Loki's features, highlighting his cheekbones. They somehow made him looked even more delicate than when he was in his female form. The lines disappeared underneath Loki's clothing, and Tony wondered how far they actually went. It was probably not a good time to ask since Loki seemed to be working himself into a panic attack if his rapid breathing was anything to go by. 

"Hey," Tony reached out and grabbed Loki gently by his shoulders, crouching down so that they were face to face. "Loki? Can you open your eyes?"

Loki shook his head. 

"Darling, just open your eyes and look at me." 

Another head shake. 

"Please, darling. Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are? Come on, deep breaths and open your eyes." 

When Loki finally did look at Tony, Tony was careful not to let his surprise show at the sight of the red eyes. He knew that Loki will only take it the wrong way in his current state of mind. 

"There you are." Tony smiled. He slowly moved his hands from Loki's shoulders, up the side of his neck until he was cupping Loki's face with his palms. The skin beneath his hand felt cooler than normal, but the texture was the same softness he had come to know. Even the lines that looked like scars were the same smooth texture. Pulling Loki's head slightly forward so that their foreheads were touching, Tony looked straight into Loki's eyes. "Just breathe with me, darling. Just breathe. Nothing to be afraid of. I'm not going anywhere." 

"I'm a monster," Loki breathed out. 

"No you're not."

Loki shook his head again in denial, once again closing his eyes. 

"Do you think so less of my opinion?" Tony asked, changing tactics. "Look at me." Loki opened his eyes at Tony's command. "Is your opinion of me so low that you'd think that I'm capable of loving a monster?" 

"Anthony – "

"I love you," Tony repeated his earlier declaration, cutting off whatever nonsense Loki was going to say. "I love you. Male, female, Aesir, Jötunn, you can be a freakin' cross-dressing Klingon for all I care, I love _you_ , Loki, just as you are." Tony finished and he closed the distance between them and kissed Loki, pouring what he felt into the simple act – love, acceptance, desire – in the hopes that Loki would believe his actions if not his words. 

Loki was unresponsive at first, but Tony didn't let up. When Loki finally parted his lips, Tony deepened the kiss, pulling Loki as close as physically possible and Loki had to bring his arms around Tony's neck to maintain their balance. After a minute or so, Loki finally let out a heart wrenching sob and he pulled away.

"Anthony." Tony had never heard his name said in so much anguish and hope all at the same time. 

"I'm here, darling. I'm not going anywhere."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Expect daily updates from now since I've counted it, if I post a part a day, I'll finish posting this on Xmas Eve! :D
> 
> Soon now!


	14. Thirteen

Loki was exhausted, but his mind kept replaying the events of the day over and over again. 

It had taken a while for Loki to calm himself after breaking down rather spectacularly in front of Anthony. "Cross-dressing Klingon?" Loki finally asked, wanting to, _needing_ to, ease the atmosphere because he couldn't bear the thought of carrying on feeling as though he had been broken into a thousand pieces and scattered all over. "I would've thought the Andorian would be more appropriate." He was still hanging on to Anthony and hiding his face against Anthony's chest so that he wouldn't have to look at his own skin. 

The comment startled a laugh out of Anthony. "No clue about _Back to the Future_ , yet you know _Star Trek_. Do I even want to know what you've been watching since coming to Earth?" 

Pulling back slightly, Loki reverted to his Aesir appearance. 

"I love you," Anthony repeated, his gaze on Loki unwavering. 

The utter sincerity in his words sent Loki reeling. Loki considered Anthony, trying to find any hint of doubt or lie in the mortal's words and actions, but there was none.

"You really do, don't you, you foolish human?" 

"Yeah, I do. And I'm more than happy to keep repeating it until you get it." 

It was then he noticed that Anthony had been kneeling on the floor. "Get up here, you idiot. Your knees must be hurting," Loki yanked Anthony back up onto his feet. Anthony winced at the sudden movement. 

Anthony didn't move away after he stood up. In fact, he leaned in closer to Loki, clutching Loki's hands in his. "Are you all right?"

The words 'I'm fine' were at the tip of Loki's tongue, but instead he said, "I will be," because there was no point in lying to Anthony, who had seen the worst of him now and still loved him. 

They had spent the rest of the evening in a somewhat subdued silence. Loki retreated back to his books and Anthony to his work room, where he could fiddle with his homemade computer. It was almost midnight before Anthony made an appearance in their room, sliding tiredly into bed. 

"Thought you'd be asleep by now," Anthony said, curling his body around Loki's. 

"Couldn't sleep," Loki admitted. 

"Brain won't shut up?" 

"I keep thinking, wondering how my life would have been different if I had known sooner. Would it have changed anything? Or would everything still be the same?" 

"Ah, the what ifs. You probably shouldn't dwell on it too much, it'll just end up driving you nuts. Trust me, I've been there, it wasn't pretty." 

Loki turned so that he was facing Anthony. His left hand reached out to rest against the arc reactor. If he concentrated, Loki could feel the power emanating from the device, eerily similar to that of one of the infinity gems he had encountered when he was much younger. 

"Maybe I wouldn't hate myself so much if they had told me sooner," Loki admitted quietly, tracing the outline of the arc reactor with his finger. Anthony had been hesitant at first to let Loki near the contraption, but as their relationship progressed, he had slowly gotten used to Loki's touch. 

Anthony grabbed Loki's wandering hand and held it close to his chest right over the arc reactor. 

"Want to hear what the public don't know about this gizmo?"

Loki's gaze shot up to meet Anthony's. Loki had never asked for the details about how Anthony came about to have the device implanted in his chest, and Anthony had never said anything despite Loki's obvious curiosity over the months. Loki knew from news reports that it had happened when Anthony had been held captive in Afghanistan, and that was warning enough for Loki to not bring up the topic. 

"You're trying to distract me," Loki accused. 

"Is it working?" Anthony didn't even bother denying it. 

And despite Loki's best efforts, his curiosity was stirred. 

"This was what got your attention, wasn't it?" Anthony asked, tapping their joint hands against the reactor's casing. 

Loki nodded. "I know that you came back from Afghanistan with it." 

"Yeah, basically what the media knows then," Anthony said. "It's a bit more than a power source for the Iron Man suits. It's keeping me alive." 

Surprised, Loki reached out with his magic, attempting to discern what was ailing Anthony. 

"You have metal shards in you," Loki said in alarm. "Thirteen, no fifteen of them." 

"Yeah. And this thing's powering an electromagnet keeping the shards where they are instead of swimming around in my veins until they pierce my heart. Only Pepper, Rhodey and Happy know about this, and now you. I tend to keep this little fact close to my chest, pardon the pun, after my godfather tried to kill me." 

The tale of Anthony's initial kidnapping, injury, survival, and then betrayal was more amazing than any article Loki had read. The fact that Anthony has revealed his most closely guarded secret to Loki gave him hope that maybe he would get to keep Anthony after all. 

"This core is not palladium," Loki commented once Anthony finished his story. "If it was, you'd be showing signs of palladium poisoning by now." 

"Actually, I'd be dead by now. You remember all that insane stuff I'd been doing a few months ago in Monaco and Dubai?"

Loki did recall those episodes. The media had been in a frenzy, wondering what Anthony was up to and why he had named Pepper Potts CEO of Stark Industries. Sudden realisation hit Loki. "You were dying?" he asked, fearful even though Anthony was clearly healthy and well before him. 

"Yeah. Palladium poisoning, as you said. SHIELD sent me a bunch of Dad's research and it turns out he found this new element that could be used as an alternate power source, so I synthesised it, and here we are." 

"It feels like magic," Loki said. 

"I wasn't really paying attention to where Howard discovered the element, didn't really have the time, and then this whole time travel thing happened. But when we get back, maybe we could go through it and find out together?"

"I would like that." 

A comfortable silence fell between them, with Anthony still holding onto Loki's hand. It didn't look like he was going to let go any time soon. 

"Happy Christmas," Anthony finally said after a few minutes. 

"Happy Christmas," Loki replied with a small smile as he closed his eyes. "Good night." 

The following week leading up to New Year was strained. It was partially Loki's fault for shutting himself away, needing the space to think, and partially due to Anthony's frustration with the computer he had built. 

Anthony had activated the device on Christmas day. While it was working as designed, the amount of data contained in the scanners was almost beyond the processing capabilities of the thing, despite Anthony's StarkPhone providing an additional boost. Loki didn't pretend to understand what Anthony was doing, he just knew that it would take a lot longer than expected for the data transfer to be completed. 

It didn't help that a snow storm descended upon New York on New Year's Day and they were snowed in until someone cleared the roads. Of course, given Loki's teleportation abilities, they weren't strictly trapped, but it didn't help the general unease around the house. 

It was the 2nd of January 1935, and they had been trapped in the past for almost six months, with Anthony's construct being the only visible sign of any progress made in their attempt to return to their own time. The frustrated yell from Anthony's workroom really didn't come as a surprise, nor was the bang as Anthony slammed the door shut and made his way down to the living area. 

Anthony was visibly attempting to calm himself as he slumped onto a chair next to the couch Loki occupied. 

"Nothing broken?" Loki asked, putting his book down. 

"No. Just frustrating. I tried increasing the rate of data flow, but it almost blew out the processor and since we only have one of those and don't have means of getting more, we'll have to settle for snail's pace," Anthony grumbled. "God, I hate Apple!" Anthony rubbed his face with his hands. "And you," he turned his attention back to Loki. "You've been avoiding me." 

"No I haven't. I've been sitting here all day." 

"Yes, that's the problem. Normally, you'd be doing your reading in the workroom with me. Don't think I didn't notice; you've been avoiding me since Christmas."

Loki had to stop himself from automatically denying it. "It wasn't intentional," he finally said. 

"I know," Anthony sighed. "You need some space to sort things out." 

"Why are you so patient with me?" Loki found himself asking. He wasn't even sure where the question was coming from.

"Do you want me to be _less_ patient with you? Because with the way I'm feeling right now, that's actually not that difficult," Anthony's reply was curt. He took a deep breath, reining in his temper. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you." 

"I really wasn't intentionally avoiding you." 

"Loki, you know you can't just continue to avoid dealing with it right? I mean, you've come a long way in the last few months. Remember when you couldn't even say the word Jötunn without freaking out? Yet a week ago, you not only told me about it, you also showed me how you look. But since then, it's like you've gone back to burying your head in the sand." Anthony sighed. "You know, I haven't even seen you naked since Christmas Eve."

"I haven't really been in the mood." 

"You know what, forget about it." 

"Anthony," Loki called out as Anthony stood up to go. Loki reached out to grab hold of him before he could walk away. When Anthony looked back at him, Loki let his masks fall, showing his lover all his uncertainties, everything that he had been feeling since he revealed the truth. 

"And you called me an idiot," Anthony said after a moment, crouching down and drawing Loki into a kiss. It was then that Loki realised that they had barely even kissed since Christmas Eve, and he had missed Anthony, his taste, his scent, the way he felt against Loki. 

They parted after a minute or so. 

"Come on," Anthony straightened up, pulling Loki along with him as he made his way upstairs to their room. Loki was glad to follow. 

However, instead of stopping in the room, Anthony dragged Loki with him into the bathroom, only coming to a stop when they stood before the large mirror in front of the sink. 

"Tony?"

"I want you to shift," Anthony said, standing behind Loki, and looking at their reflection in the mirror. 

"Shift?" Loki knew that he probably sound like an idiot, parroting Anthony's word back at him, but he just didn't understand what it was Anthony wanted him to do. 

"Shift to your Jötunn form," Anthony elaborated.

Loki looked into Anthony's eyes in the mirror. "You are serious?" 

"Yes." 

"Why?" Why would Anthony want him to do this, knowing of Loki's unease? What did he hope to accomplish? 

"Because I want you to see yourself in the skin you were born in, to see what I see when I look at you." 

"Anthony, I – " 

"Please, Loki," Anthony implored, raising his hands and resting them on Loki's shoulders. "Just do this for me." Anthony knew Loki could never say no to his requests. It was a weakness he had discovered early in their relationship, though he had never abused the privilege. Anthony's right hand slid down Loki's arm, the touch grounding him even through the fabric of Loki's shirt. When their hands met, Loki curled his fingers with Anthony's and brought their joined hands up to rest against his chest, pulling Anthony forwards so that his front was pressed against Loki's back, knowing that he could feel Loki's pounding heart. 

"I'm going to be right here with you, every step of the way." Loki could feel Anthony's stubble scratching the side of his face as he spoke, and he leaned his head closer to press their cheeks together. He liked how they looked together in the mirror. 

Closing his eyes, Loki took a deep breath and concentrated on the small spark within him that has always been there at his core; that he hadn't even realised it was Odin's magic until Frigga's revelation. Slowly, he let the coldness within him take over, until it cloaked the spark completely. Loki could feel the change spreading through him. Anthony felt heated and feverish against Loki's now cooler body temperature. 

"Open your eyes," Anthony whispered against Loki's ear.

"No." He didn't want to see the monstrous eyes, the eyes of a demon, staring back at him in the mirror, cloaked in heinous blue skin. 

"Kinda defeats the purpose if you don't. Just for a minute, open your eyes and just see what I see. How stunning you are, how gorgeous we both look together. You can at least admit that, can't you? That I'm dashingly handsome?" Anthony coaxed. 

"You, maybe. Not me. Not like this."

"Yes, like this. Exactly like this." Loki felt Anthony moving, and he let out a startled gasp when Anthony nipped at his neck. "Still as sensitive right there, no change then," Anthony commented before he launched an outright assault on the same spot, alternating between licking and sucking that would no doubt leave a mark. Loki felt his knees going weak even as he leaned his head back to give Anthony better access. "Hmm… maybe even more sensitive than before," Anthony murmured as though talking to himself. 

Loki felt Anthony's free hand stroking down his torso, untucking his shirt so he could slip his hand underneath. The first touch of Anthony's fingers on his bare skin was almost too much for Loki, the heat left a burning trail of overwhelming sensations. His face felt flushed, and he was still holding onto Anthony's right hand. Loki felt Anthony's lips moved down, gently kissing his way until he reached Loki's shoulder; a sharper bite and Loki couldn't help the moan that escaped his lips. 

"Open your eyes," Anthony commanded, and this time, Loki was helpless to resist. 

Red eyes stared back at him in the mirror, the colour even more distinct against the blue of his skin. His shirt was hitched half way up his chest, and Anthony's arm held him possessively, human pink against alien blue. 

"Gorgeous." Loki could hear the lust in Anthony's voice, he could feel the evidence of Anthony's desire hot against his hip, he could see the pure _want_ in Anthony as their eyes met in the mirror. 

Heated hands still canvassing across his torso, up his chest, Anthony didn't allow Loki time to think, his aim seemed to be to overwhelm Loki's senses with pure need, and it was working. A simple pinch of his nipple had Loki crying out; the coolness of his skin in perfect contrast to the heat of Anthony's fingers. The sensation was something he'd never experienced before, and sent jolts of pleasure through him. 

"Look at you, just perfect." Anthony's husky tone made Loki's breath catch. "Absolutely perfect."

The reflection in the mirror was not someone Loki recognised; blood red eyes that he had always thought monstrous now clouded over with desire. Loki could feel the heat gathering low in his stomach as Anthony worked his shirt open. The hand still holding onto Loki's was not idle either, his thumbs traced circular patterns on Loki's palm and fingers, sending his nerves tingling. Before now, Loki had never thought that his hands could be so sensitive. 

Releasing Loki's hand, Anthony took half a step back and pulled Loki's shirt from his shoulders. Blue filled Loki's vision until Anthony returned to his previous position and plastered himself against Loki's back, his arms coming around Loki's chest in an embrace. Anthony once again rested his chin on Loki's shoulder, looking at their reflection. 

"Absolutely perfect," Anthony repeated. Bending his head, Anthony placed a heated kiss on Loki's shoulder, and his hands moved to settle on Loki's waist. "Why don't we find out where those lines lead?" Anthony turned them both around so that they were now face to face. 

Anthony reached out with one arm and pulled Loki towards him until their lips met. The act of kissing Anthony felt utterly familiar and new to Loki at the same time. The last time Anthony had kissed him while he was in his Jötunn form, Loki had been too distraught to pay attention to the different sensations. Now though, Loki's head was spinning from the heat of Anthony's lips on his, the feel of his tongue darting into Loki's mouth. Closing his eyes, Loki moaned, reaching out to grab his lover's waist to steady himself. 

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Anthony whispered against his lips. 

"Yes," Loki hissed, because there was no point lying, not with Anthony's palm pressing down against his arousal, teasing him through the fabric of his trousers. 

Anthony's lips moved downwards, and out the corner of his eyes, Loki could see in the mirror Anthony tracing one of the lines with his tongue, down his neck, chest, pausing next to his nipple before giving it a lick and sucking it into his hot mouth. 

"Anthony," Loki moaned. The heat was almost too much. He felt like his skin was on fire everywhere Anthony was touching him; it was as though Anthony was branding him, marking him.

Anthony released Loki's left nipple and repeated the action on its twin until Loki had to grab hold of the sink next to them just to remain steady on his feet. Letting go of the nipple, Anthony looked at Loki with a half-lidded stare that awoke an aching need deep within Loki that was unlike anything he had ever felt. 

"No one has ever touched you like that before; no one has even _seen_ you like this before." The possessiveness in Anthony's voice sent a thrill down Loki's spine. 

"Just you," he replied, voice hoarse. "Only you." 

Loki could see Anthony's pupil dilate even further at his words, but he soon returned to his task and continued where he left off. The bathroom was filled with the sound of Loki's laboured breathing and moans whenever Anthony reached a sensitive spot. His trousers felt uncomfortably tight and wet at the same time; the feeling was unfamiliar and confusing. 

Anthony slowly moved lower and lower, and before Loki knew it, he was on his knees in front of Loki unfastening his trousers and pushing them down along with his underwear. Anthony tossed the garments in the direction of Loki's shirt and looked at Loki, who was now standing naked before him. 

"Looks like they do go all the way," Anthony smirked, one of his fingers tracing a line that ran across Loki's hip down to his pelvis, before it disappeared underneath his penis. Loki's knees almost gave up and he let out an almost embarrassing whimper when Anthony's finger touched a spot behind his erection. Loki grabbed at the top of Anthony's head and tightened his hold on the sink.

"God," Anthony's voice was husky with arousal and wonder. "You're _dripping_." Before Loki could work out what Anthony meant, Anthony sucked the tip of Loki's cock into his mouth, and at the same time pushed a finger _in_ and if it hadn't been for his hold on the sink, and Anthony's hold on his hip, Loki would have fallen over. Eyes squeezed shut, Loki couldn't help the noises that he was making, which only seemed to encourage Anthony to redoubled his efforts in reducing Loki into a quivering mess of pleasure and need. 

A second finger joined the first just as Anthony swallowed him down to the hilt, and Loki couldn't decide whether to thrust forward into Anthony's mouth or to sink himself lower onto his fingers. His entire body was ablaze; Anthony's mouth felt hotter than it ever had before, and the fingers in him seemed almost as though they were attempting to thaw him from the inside out. 

Loki's thighs were wet, and he finally realised that it was his quim; that he had a quim that Anthony was fucking with his fingers even as Loki was fucking his mouth. 

Anthony pulled his head back slightly, and Loki cried out when he started sucking. Anthony's fingers scissored within Loki, twisting deep inside him until they hit a spot that made Loki's vision white out and he came with a wail, muscles shaking with pleasure as his knees finally gave up and he sank bonelessly to the floor. 

Anthony wasted no time crawling on top of Loki and mashing their lips together, letting out a desperate groan as he thrust his hips against Loki's pelvis once, and bit down on Loki's lower lips almost hard enough to draw blood. Loki felt a patch of wet heat spreading and it hit him then that Anthony was coming, right here. 

"Loki," Anthony gasped. His cheeks were flushed, hair a mess where Loki had been gripping on to previously, and even fully clothed he looked utterly debauched. 

Loki realised that he had done this to Anthony; Loki in his natural form, without magic or anything else had reduced this genius superhero to such a desperate state that he had climaxed without Loki laying a single finger on him. It was just him, Loki, who did this. 

Loki did the only thing he could think of and kissed Anthony thoroughly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... happy sexy Friday? ;)


	15. Fourteen

It took another half a week for Tony to transfer all the data from his scanners so he could begin running analysis. Tony had to create an ad-hoc program on his phone and modify a few other apps before he could begin. The limited computing power frustrated Tony to no end, he had even contemplated making his own chip before he remembered that it would be at least another 15 years before anyone would even hear about the integrated circuit, much less have the tools required to produce what Tony considered a modern computer chip.

Conversely, his relationship with Loki seemed to be better than ever, after Tony's rather risky move that had led to him coming in his pants like some inexperienced teenager. The embarrassment and hit to his reputation was worth it though, since Loki seemed finally convinced that Tony really didn't care about his race or species. Tony should've guessed earlier that a trickster and wordsmith like Loki would trust action more than easily manipulated words.

Loki had been a lot calmer and relaxed since that afternoon and a lot more open with Tony, too. Tony couldn't stop smiling when he recalled what had happened the next morning.

For once, Loki had been up before Tony and he had had kissed him good morning without a word. Then as Tony's brain tried to wake up, Loki just looked at Tony with something almost like adoration.

"You do realise I love you, right?" Loki had asked quietly. "That I have loved you for a while now."

"I had a feeling, but I wasn't sure."

"Then be sure."

They had spent half the morning in bed, not doing anything, just being with each other. It was one of the most contented moments in Tony's life.

"What are you smiling about?" Loki asked, startling Tony out of his thoughts.

"Nothing. Just… thinking I guess, while this thing finishes the simulation." Tony replied. He turned around in his chair to face Loki, who was sprawled out on the bed. Loki put his book face down on his lap, his attention now on Tony. "You know, six months ago, if anyone had told me I'd be in love with a deity, I'd probably send them to have their heads examined, yet here we are."

Loki cocked his head as he considered Tony's words. "If this is your way of attempting to sweet talk me into having sex with you in my Jötunn form again, it's not working."

It wasn't, but Loki's response made Tony smirked. "Come on, darling!" Tony had first brought up the possibility of a repeat performance a couple days ago, but Loki had shot the idea down. But the refusal came with a slight pause beforehand, and that told Tony that Loki might not be as adverse to it as he wanted Tony to think. So in between trying not to take a hammer to what was currently the most advanced piece of technology on the planet, Tony had been gently trying to change Loki's mind. "I _know_ you're curious as well!"

The slight flush on Loki's cheeks told Tony all he needed to know, and he couldn't help feeling a sense of pride that Loki was comfortable enough with himself and with Tony that he was able to talk about his origins without freaking out. Especially to the point where he was actually considering doing something sexy in that form, despite his denials. 

"Answer is still no," Loki replied.

Tony only smiled in return. He had been careful not to push too much, but Tony was pretty confident that Loki's own curiosity will win out in the end even without Tony's input. 

A loud 'ping' reminiscent of a microwave sounded from the carcase of Loki's iPhone and Tony's attention was back to the task at hand. "Finally! Some results!"

Loki abandoned his book on the bed and got up to join Tony in front of his workbench. 

"Next upgrade, the sensors are getting a general wireless connection port and I'm putting a holographic screen projector on the phone. This is wreaking havoc on my eyesight," Tony grumbled, scrolling through the results on the small screen of his StarkPhone. 

"Can't you not display it on the terminal screen?" Loki asked. 

"Believe it or not, this is actually faster. And that screen can't handle colour displays, and we kinda need that." Tony paused as he considered the results before him. "Huh."

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure. It seems to suggest that there's something other than the temporal rift at work. Look at this," Tony showed Loki the screen. "The red and green lines are the spatial and temporal readings, and they pretty much have the same pattern, which is expected since it's a localised temporal rift, as far as we could tell. But look at that blue line, it deviates from the other two just before we had the spike that sent us here." Tony enlarged the graph so that it filled the small screen of his phone, making it slightly easier to read. "The curves are pretty much inverse of each other."

"This is most cumbersome," Loki commented, taking the phone from Tony and slowly looked through the other output graphs and results on the small screen.

"Tell me about it," Tony sighed. Then a thought occurred to him. "Wait a minute, can you turn this damn thing into a colour display?" Tony pointed at the black and white screen. "Or just conjure one from our time?"

Loki looked up from the phone, thoughtful. "Possibly. What do you have in mind, love?"

Tony grinned. Loki had only ever called him 'love' when he was in his Lucile disguise in front of others. And the prospect of having better equipment to work with was a bonus. 

"You had that colour TV in the living room before, when you pranked me."

"That was only an illusion," Loki shook his head. "To actually conjure a functional object, I would require some knowledge of it, especially if it's an object with multiple functioning parts like a computer display screen. If we were in our time, I would not even bother with conjuring, it would be easier just to use a spatial spell and appropriate the required item from another location instead of creating it from scratch, so to speak." Loki explained. "There's a reason that blacksmiths and weavers are still respected professions on Asgard and the other realms; it is much harder to create non-elemental objects such as weapons and clothing just from magic."

"Right, so conjuring is a bit like me building this damn thing then? You need to know which part goes where to form the whole?" Tony asked, his mind already coming up with a number of possibilities.

"Yes, it is similar," Loki confirmed.

"If I draw you a detailed plan of something with all the circuits and stuff, and explain to you how it all works, technically you can build me a projector?"

"Theoretically. But while my general control has improved and I'm fairly certain that a conjured object will remain intact for the duration it is needed, I am still uncertain whether I have regained the finesse required for creating small detailed objects like your computer chip. The amount of power involved in conjuring complex objects is usually too much to make it worthwhile. It would be easier to modify an existing object with similar function."

"So you're saying you can modify this piece of antique," Tony gestured to the small black and white screen held up by his makeshift frame. "into a more modern colour screen if I can explain how the two differ and how a colour screen works?"

"That should be quite easily accomplished, yes." Loki said as he stepped around Tony and leaned over the bench to look at the antique screen in question.

"Great! I'll need more paper! Large pieces of paper!" Tony requested, turning back to the workbench and grabbing his pen. A small stack of roughly A3 sized paper materialised on a less cluttered section of the workbench courtesy of Loki. Tony happily grabbed some and began drawing. "Right, darling, listen up. Electrical Engineering 101 or maybe it should be Basic Principles of Graphic Colour Display, anyway, I know that you've got a rather fantastic understanding of physics – "

Loki snorted as he leaned on the workbench to get a better look at what Tony was drawing. "I believe my understanding on the subject surpass even yours, love."

"We'll see about that, but that's not the point. Point is, your so called advanced civilisation seem to have gone a different scientific route to us mere Earthlings, so here's a crash course on Earth's brand of physics and engineering."

It took Tony barely an hour to cover the basics and to draw up the schematics of a suitable display screen. He had toyed with the idea of having a holographic display like the ones he was accustomed to at home, but those actually required advance microprocessors, and it was probably just too much hassle at this point. As expected, Loki picked up the concepts easily and asked a number of pertinent questions to clarify some of the functions and purposes of a number of components that he wasn't familiar with.

"So, is that enough detail?" Tony asked at the end of their impromptu lecture session.

"I believe so. Give me a few hours to study these," Loki replied, picking up the schematics that Tony had drawn up. "I should be able to modify the current screen to suit your needs."

"Awesome! I'll see if I can isolate that anomaly and find out what it is," Tony said, standing up and stretching his back. Loki merely nodded distractedly, already lost in his own head as he studied the schematics.

They spent the rest of the afternoon working side by side, mostly in companionable silence, occasionally tossing out theories for brainstorming. Though as the hours passed, Tony grew more unease with what the energy breakdown of the third unknown source was starting to resemble. His fingers were flying over the small screen as he ran tests after tests, but the final breakdown still looked the same. 

"What is it, love?" Loki was leaning over Tony's shoulder with his side plastered to Tony. Tony hadn't even noticed Loki doing it until he felt the chaste kiss on his left cheek and heard Loki's voice. 

"I think I found our variable," Tony replied, scrolling through the results, just wanting to be absolutely sure. 

"Oh? The graphs and numbers you have there are meaningless to me," Loki replied.

"Unfortunately, I'm actually very familiar with this particular brand of energy output," Tony said, turning off the phone and putting it down on the workbench. He reached back for Loki, pulling the other man around and onto his lap. Loki was heavy, but Tony could deal with it for a few minutes. Right now Tony just needed Loki to be close as a crushing sense of guilt threatened to overcome him. 

"Tony?" Loki asked tentatively after Tony burrow his face against Loki's chest. 

"It's my fault," Tony mumbled. 

"What?"

"It's my fault we're stuck 77 years in the past. Or rather, 76 years now I suppose." 

"Anthony, you're talking nonsense," Loki said, running his fingers through Tony's hair, gently massaging his scalp. "How is it your fault? You didn't do anything to cause this." 

"That third energy signature. It's my arc reactor. Or rather it's the still unnamed new element Howard discovered. The temporal field somehow reacted to it and sent us here. If I hadn't been around when the energy spike occurred, you wouldn't be stuck here with me." 

Loki was silent and Tony braced himself for the anger he knew was going to come. "In that case, I'm glad you were there with me that night." 

Tony looked up at Loki, surprised. "What? Why?"

"Do you really have to ask, Anthony? After all you have done for me, do you still have to ask?" Loki's voice was soft as his hold on Tony tightened; the hand in his hair continued its gentle comforting motion, almost absentmindedly. "I was so lost before I met you, but you found me. You caught me and stopped me from running away from myself. You made me see that what I am doesn't necessarily define who I am, and you love me for who I am, just as I love you for who you are." Loki paused, and Tony almost stopped breathing at the emotion he could see in Loki's eyes. "I am glad, nay, I am beholden to whatever fate it was that decided to trap me here with you, for I wouldn't have found myself without you." 

Tony knew he had a stupid smile on his face, and he probably looked like some besotted idiot (because he clearly was), but he didn't care. "Silver-tongue, you," he replied, his voice choked.

"I merely speak the truth, my love." 

"Yeah, guess me saying 'I love you, too' is a poor response to that eloquent speech you just gave."

"Anthony, I will never tire of you saying that." 

Loki cupped Tony's face with both his hands and leaned in and kissed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back to the plot!


	16. Fifteen

Now that Anthony no longer needed parts for his computer, the pair of them had turned almost reclusive, with some exceptions. Loki would still see Maria once or twice a week when they went to source fresh food from the markets, and Anthony still sometimes went by Al's shop, probably out of some strange sense of loyalty and possibly his own desire to see his father again despite his protests otherwise. But they remained in the house most of the time. 

Loki was spending a lot more time in the study, examining the rift. Anthony's machines might be telling them what the energy emissions were, but they hadn't been able to tell where it was coming from or what sort of reaction between the rift energy and the arc reactor had caused the time travel. 

Loki had been carefully reaching out with his magic to attempt to discern its origin, but with the rift being largely dormant, he was getting nowhere fast. Of course the intermittent unpredictable spike in activity that tend to happen when Loki was _out_ of the room. Anthony had also analysed the data they had collected since being transported to the past, and the frequency of the energy spikes appeared to be increasing slightly as time went by. 

"I have a theory," Anthony had said one morning after reviewing their data for the millionth time. 

"That the rift is gathering energy and the spikes we witness will become more frequent as time passes until it comes to a head the likes of which resulted in our current predicament?" 

"Way to steal my thunder, darling," Anthony grumbled good-naturedly. "But I think like it when you finish my thoughts like that. It's kinda hot." 

"Insatiable." Loki couldn't help but chuckle. 

"When it comes to you? Absolutely!" 

After their months together, Loki had thought Anthony's interest in him would have weaned at least a little given his playboy reputation. A part of him couldn't help but wonder if it was because there was a distinct lack of options for Anthony given their predicament, but it was hard to imagine Anthony looking at any of his one night stands the way he looked at Loki. The teasing was reassuring, and Loki suspected that Anthony knew that about him. 

Just as Loki was about to give up on the rift for the day, there was a twinge at the edge of his senses. He reached out further with his magic, into the ebb and flow of the energy that had felt familiar to him even when he had first seen the crack. Delving in deeper, Loki realised that he was in fact within the time stream, the rip in the stream was his point of entry. In the distance, Loki could see the faint glow of something clearly out of place, the source of the ripples and disturbance. 

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Loki knew that he had to pull himself back, that it would be too easy to lose himself in the time stream, and end up in some unknown timeline, but the source seemed to call out to him, reach for him. It was familiar, somehow, even though Loki could swear he had never encountered something like that before. He forcefully restrained his sense of curiosity and retreated from the time stream, instinctively knowing that it was a bad idea to approach it without knowing what it was. 

When he opened his eyes, the first thing Loki saw was Anthony's worried eyes. 

"Oh thank god!"

"Tony?" 

"You've been sitting there for the last four hours! I wanted to snap you out of it, but I had no idea what you were doing, and barging in might have made things worse," Anthony explained. 

"Four hours? It felt like merely moments to me."

"What did you do? You held that rift opened the entire time. The energy levels weren't that strong, but it was constant, none of that random spiking we saw before." 

"I'm not sure," Loki said. He tried to get up from the floor where he had been sitting, but almost fell over when a fit of dizziness overcame him. 

Anthony caught him. "Whoa, easy there." 

"I'm fine, just… expanded a lot more energy than expected." Loki frowned, something wasn't quite right. 

"What is it?" 

"The sensors were recording the entire time?" Loki asked.

"Yeah." 

"You need to analyse the data from today. There's something… I don't know. Something in the time stream causing all this." 

"Okay, I'll do that. In the meantime, I think you need some rest," Anthony said, directing Loki towards their bedroom. 

Loki was actually feeling too tired to argue, which only seemed to worry Anthony more. "I'm fine, love. Nothing a good night's sleep and some food won't cure." 

"I might have to grab some takeaway in that case."

"Hmm, yes," Loki replied as he settled himself on the bed, crawling under the covers as Anthony hovered above him like a mother hen. "I really don't think carbon coal is suitable for consumption even for one as hardy as myself." 

"Haha, very funny." Anthony bent down and gave Loki a chaste kiss. "Get some rest, I'm going to get the data upload started and go grab us some food."

It was dark outside by the time Loki woke up, the bedroom door was shut, which was a bit of an anomaly, but the reason was clear as soon as Loki opened the door. He could hear faint voices coming from the kitchen downstairs, and the scent of freshly made hearty Italian food permeated the air. There was only one answer to the mystery: Maria. 

Switching to her female form, Loki made sure to project an illusion of tiredness and made her way towards the kitchen. Anthony would no doubt worry, but it couldn't be helped. Anthony was immediately by her side as soon as he saw Loki by the kitchen door. 

"I'm fine," Loki reassured him with a small smile before turning her attention to Maria and Owen at the table. "I didn't realise we were having guests today." 

"I saw Ed heading out just as I got home from work, he said you were feeling a bit under the weather, and Maria overheard," Owen explained. "The rest, I'm sure you can work out. Lucile, dear, are you feeling better?"

"It was just a bit of a headache, nothing to worry about," Loki replied. 

"Sit, sit," Maria got up from her chair and practically made Loki take it. "I'll get you a bowl of minestrone soup. I hope you don't mind me taking over your kitchen. I was in the middle of making dinner and I didn't have enough space to put another pot on." Maria went on as she expertly navigated their kitchen and got Loki a bowl of soup. "So I cooked it up over here."

"You didn't have to, Maria. But thank you. It smells divine." 

"My mother's recipe. I couldn't believe Edward was going to go to that overpriced place down the road for food. Sure, it's fine for special occasions, but you need a good home-cooked meal when you're poorly."

"It's better than him burning the place down attempting to make something," Loki replied, carefully taking a spoonful of the quite delicious soup. 

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Anthony protested, giving Loki an affectionate kiss at the top of her head. 

"Love, if you didn't need coffee to live, you'd burn water." Loki teased. "I made the mistake of asking him to boil some potatoes once, almost burnt the place down." 

"Ed, I bow to your genius, even I could manage to boil potatoes!" Owen laughed. 

"You're Irish," Anthony retorted. 

The O'Donnellys didn't stay long after, clearly not wanting to disturb Lucile's rest. Loki worked through another two bowls of Maria's soup and half a loaf of bread before she felt back to normal.

"I'm fine, Anthony," Loki repeated when she saw Anthony's rather unsubtle worried glances at her. 

"You were unresponsive for over four hours. Forgive me for being a little worried." 

Loki's slight irritation at Anthony's protectiveness faded at those words. 

"I'm perfectly fine. Just depleted my magic a little. Like I said, nothing some food and rest couldn't cure." Loki reassured Anthony. "Any progress with your data?"

"Still being transferred. It's over four hours worth, probably an overnight job." 

"Maybe I can try duplicating the computer chip you need?" Loki suggested. "I think I might have enough control now to manage it." 

"It won't tire you out?"

"I should be sufficiently recovered by tomorrow. And a straight duplication instead of creating it from scratch doesn't take as much energy." 

Anthony nodded. "Yeah, we could give it a go tomorrow when the current transfer is done and I can unhook the thing. Now, tell me what the hell happened?!"


	17. Sixteen

To prevent himself from going crazy, Tony decided to stop paying attention to how long it was taking to get any of the simulations done. Even with the additional chips Loki managed to duplicate, there was only so much processing power that something meant for cell phones can produce. The modified larger display did make it much quicker for Tony to review the results, and it stopped him from getting headaches after hours squinting at the smaller screen. 

Loki's description of what he had discovered had led them to conclude that the time rift was not a natural phenomenon. There was an object, lost in the time stream, that was causing all the mess. The same object that had called out to Loki, as though it needed someone to find it. 

Tony mentally reviewed what Loki had told him. "Wait a minute, are you saying that whatever it is that's lost in the time stream, it reacted to my arc reactor?"

Loki nodded. "You mentioned that your father discovered the element while researching something else? Do you remember what it was he was looking into?"

"It was something he found when he was looking for Captain America. This hyper-cube or something like that," Tony answered. "Do you know what it is?" 

"Did he describe it?" Loki asked. 

"It was a cube."

Loki rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Tony, be serious." 

"Uh… I don’t remember much since I really didn't pay that much attention to that part of the research. I think he mentioned that it was blue, which made sense since the arc reactor's blue. He also mentioned something about it being a potential endless source of energy."

"Interesting," Loki said looking thoughtful. He indicated toward Tony's chest. "May I?"

Tony nodded, and Loki placed a hand on the arc reactor and closed his eyes. Tony didn't feel any different or sense anything amiss with the arc reactor, but Loki was clearly doing something. Since Obie's betrayal, Pepper had been the only other person Tony had allowed this close to the arc reactor, and even after all these months, Tony was still surprised to find himself trusting Loki this much. A small jolt of something that felt like electricity, but distinctively not, startled Tony out of his musing, and Loki jerked his hand back. 

"What happened?" Tony asked, rubbing his chest at where the casing was. "And what the hell was that?"

"Magic," Loki replied, looking at Tony in what could only be described as wonder and astonishment. "The element you have in your chest, it is the same element that makes up the Tesseract. You have recreated a part of an Infinity Gem." 

"Um…what?" Tony had absolutely no idea what to make of Loki's reaction. 

"Do you have any idea how… impossible this is? How impossible you are, my Anthony?"

"Yeah, quite a few people have called me that," Tony said, feeling utterly lost. "But I have a feeling you don't mean it in the same way." 

"Love, the Infinity Gems are the most powerful magical artefacts in the known universe. Said to be the creations of the Celestials themselves who used it to build civilisations across the stars when the universe first came into being. To possess all six stones is to possess the power to create or destroy realities," Loki explained. "Even the power of a single Infinity Gem is enough to create weapons capable of wiping out entire planets or give life to entire planets. What you have within you is a piece of the Tesseract, the Space Gem. It was in Odin's custody for a long time, which is why I thought it familiar. I had seen the Tesseract as a child, before it was lost on Midgard centuries ago. Your father must have found it, and you in turn, managed to recreate a part of it."

And what was Tony supposed to say to that? "It really wasn't that hard once you figured out the basic structure, really." Tony paused and then actually considered what Loki had revealed. "Okay, who am I kidding, it was an awesome feat of science and engineering and I am a genius." He beamed. 

"There are beings of immense power who would do almost anything to possess such ability." Loki shook his head in disbelief. "Since getting to know you, I've always know that the general public on Earth had underestimated your intelligence, but I never realised the extent of their misjudgement until this moment. And I am never going to hear the end of this from now on, aren't I?" Loki added, no doubt seeing how smug Tony was looking. 

"Nope! I've always said that no one really appreciates my genius, and I'm right! Damn, I wish I'd recorded that, Pepper would never believe me!" 

"Normally, I would say you're being vulgar, but in this instance, and at the risk of inflating your ego even further, I think this is an accomplishment worthy of pride." 

"If what you said is true," Tony said, the implication of Loki's explanation finally hitting him, "if this ever gets out, that I could re-create the element of the Tesseract, there would be others who would want it, won't there?"

Loki nodded. "Who else knows?"

"SHIELD knows a bit, but not all the technical details. That's on a secure server that only I have access to. Jarvis has strict instructions on how to handle that information should I ever be incapacitated," Tony said. "Even when I was creating it, I knew it had great potential to do harm in the wrong hands. I just hadn't realised how great that potential was." 

"You were creating other arc reactors. Do they not have the same core?"

Tony shook his head. "No, everything else runs on the palladium core. Frankly, it was cheaper and made more commercial sense since my aim was to make them available as an alternate source of cheap and clean energy. But what does this mean? The fact that I have a piece of an Infinity Gem in me?" 

"It lends more weight to my theory, that the object lost within the time stream is also an Infinity Gem, the Time Gem to be precise. It must have sensed the Tesseract's energy within you and thought it was its sister gem. I think if it weren't for your arc reactor, we probably would have been transported not only in time, but in space as well. Your arc reactor acted as an anchor in space, keeping us here in the same location." 

Tony frowned. "Wait, that doesn't quite make sense. The spatial energy spike in the results showed that it was on a similar trajectory to the temporal spike." Tony called up the relevant graphs on the larger screen. "Look at that." 

"It makes perfect sense," Loki said after examining the graphs. "You forget that the Tesseract is also the Space Gem. Its energy is also spatial energy, just a slightly different sort. If you average out both waves, they should be constant."

Tony keyed in the calculations, and as Loki predicted, when the two lines were averaged out, they formed an almost flat line on the graph. "We stayed right in the same place and time shifted." 

"Exactly." 

"But if the gems are as powerful as you say they are, why can't we just use the Time Gem and get home?"

"I don't know," Loki admitted. "For some reason, it feels like the Time Gem is building up its energy. Your data shows a slow but gradual increase in energy spikes – "

"Yes, and if my predictions are correct, which they are because I’m a genius, we would reach the same peak level in about two months." 

Loki appeared to consider the situation. "The Time Gem has been lost for eons. Who knows where it's been or what has been done for it to end up floating in the time stream. But whatever it is, it looks like its recharging itself before we can utilise it to get home."

"You said that it was acting quite randomly in the time stream. Can we control it and use it to get home? I mean, I really don't want to end up going back even further in time or something." 

"Now that I know what's causing it, I will be able to direct its path," Loki confirmed. "But you shouldn't touch it if you see it. Most of the gems tend to destroy less than immortal beings."

"Right, look but no touching. Got it." 

Finally, they have a way to go home. All Tony had to do now was to calculate the exact time the rift energy would peak. Piece of cake, really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting there now! Thank you all for all the comments and support so far!


	18. Seventeen

As the day of their departure from the 1930s loomed ever closer, Loki detected an increased sense of tension between himself and Anthony. Both of them were pretending that things were going on as normal while pointedly ignoring the elephant in the room: that things would be different once they returned to 2011.

Anthony finally snapped a week before D-Day, as he called it. Loki still wasn't sure he completely understood Anthony's attempt at explaining what D-Day was. 

"We have to talk about it," Anthony said, still looking down at the mobile phone display in his hands, his back towards Loki.

"Talk about what?"

"You know what," Anthony finally turned around to look at Loki who was in his customary position on the bed with his book. "You. Me. Us." Anthony tossed his phone onto the workbench and got up from his seat and made himself comfortable next to Loki on the bed. Almost automatically, Loki wrapped an arm around Tony's shoulder and pulled him close.

"You know I hate to talk about this stuff, but this not knowing is starting to drive me nuts," Anthony continued.

"I don't know," Loki admitted. "I admit I didn't want to dwell on the topic."

"As much as I might like to go on like this, things won't be the same when we get back."

"No, it won't be. I…" Loki paused for a moment. "I think I need to return to Asgard. At least for a little while," Loki said carefully, knowing how his words could be perceived. 

"Oh." It was surprising how much disappointment Anthony could fit into a single syllable. 

"No, Anthony, I'm not leaving you," Loki added immediately to reassure Anthony. "I do not think I will ever have the strength in me to leave you unless it is you who no longer wants me," Loki admitted. 

"I want you," Tony said. "I want you to stay with me, be with me, for as long as you want."

"That could be a very long time, love," Loki murmured, turning so he could kiss Anthony on his temple. Anthony snuggled closer to Loki. "But I have a lot of questions for my father," Loki continued. "Questions that I need answers to, one way or another."

"I understand," Anthony replied and Loki had no doubt that he did. Anthony had witnessed Loki's struggle in coming to terms with his adoption and heritage; he knew the questions that still plagued Loki. Frigga had told Loki what she knew, but there were some things that only Odin could answer.

"I don't know how long it would take. Last I knew, Thor had been banished to Earth. I'm not sure what has been happening since then."

"You're saying it could be a while then?"

"Possibly a few months, Earth's time," Loki replied. He paused, wondering if he should reveal his thoughts on their possible temporary separation. "Maybe it would be a good thing?"

"Good thing? To be separated?" Anthony was clearly confused, as he pushed himself back a little so he could sit up a little more to properly look at Loki. "What are you saying?"

"Tony, we've been essentially living in a bubble of our own for the last 11 months – "

"I hope you're not implying that I'd go back to sleeping around the moment we get back to 2011 – "

"No, of course not," Loki denied, but Anthony was apparently having none of it.

"How many times do I have to tell you, to show you that I love you? What else do you want me to do to prove that it's only you I want? That right now, the mere thought of sleeping with someone else actually makes me feel sick?"

"Anthony, please don't put words in my mouth," Loki said, running his hands up Anthony's side in an attempt to comfort and reassure. "I just meant we might need time to adjust to being back."

"And you think it's a good idea that we do that separately?" Anthony asked, incredulous. 

"Perhaps."

"Explain, because I have no idea where you're coming from with that. We got stuck here together. Why can't we deal with going back together?"

"Because back in 2011, you're in the lime light. And if what I know of your media is accurate, there will be a fall out of some sort from our relationship. You will need to have strategies in place to deal with it, especially if I'm to remain in my preferred male form," Loki explained. It was only part of the reason, but knowing his Anthony, Loki wouldn't be able to hide for long. 

"And because you wanted some time alone?" Anthony asked, just as Loki thought he would. The hesitation in Anthony's tone as he said that, the uncertainty in his eyes as he ducked his head in an attempt to hide it from Loki's sight, it almost broke Loki's heart to be the one responsible for them. 

"Anthony," Loki lifted Tony's chin up so that they were eye to eye. Loki let his front drop completely, hoping that his lover could see the love Loki has for him, the distress and conflict Loki felt over his need to return to Asgard and leaving Anthony's side. Anthony had been the only person in centuries that Loki trusted enough to bare himself to such an extent, knowing that Anthony would never hurt him on purpose. 

"Darling, you don't have to explain."

"But I do, Anthony," Loki insisted. "You are the most important person in my life right now, but – "

"You need to find out where you now stand with your family? And who you are without me?" Anthony asked, somehow understanding it all without Loki having to spell it out. How had Loki got so lucky, to have met someone like Anthony? 

Loki nodded. "I had built my entire identity on the basis of the fact that I was Loki Odinson, Prince of Asgard. When that turned out to be a lie, the foundation of who I was crumbled. I can't afford to lose myself like that again, to redefine myself on the basis of just one thing. I do not doubt you, or your feelings for me, but – "

"But I'm mortal, and like it or not, you'll lose me one way or another," Anthony concluded, giving voice to the subject that Loki had not been willing to even consider. Losing Anthony to something as feeble as mortality was unthinkable.

"No, I won't lose you that way. I won't allow it," Loki swore. "Unless, you don't want immortality?" Loki asked, suddenly uncertain. The idea what Anthony might want to remain mortal, it scared him more than he thought it would. 

"I don't know, Loki. I haven't really thought about it, to be honest. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, all right? I still have a few years left in me, we can deal with that later," Anthony said, brushing the issue aside. "What I'm trying to say is: I get it. I get why you need to go back to Asgard to sort out some stuff and get your questions answered. I just… don't like it, I suppose."

"I'll come back. I'll always come back to you. You must know that."

"Yeah, and I think I can see what you meant when you say this could also be good for us." Anthony nodded. "We haven't actually been apart at all, not a single day since this whole thing started. If I had a shrink, they'll probably say we have a rather unhealthy relationship of co-dependence or some such crap. We should get used to spending some time away from each other."

If Anthony had been extra clingy or Loki a little bit more demonstrative for the rest of the week, neither of them said anything. The day before their departure, after Anthony came home from saying his farewells to Al and his father, Loki had curled himself around Tony, offering comfort as Anthony let his tears fell silently in the dark, finally mourning the father he never had the chance to know, or to say good bye to until now, more than 20 years after his death.

"He thanked me. Howard thanked me for being an inspiration to him, and all I've been doing is trying to avoid him most of the time."

"But you also guided him to the path he needed to be on, and he knew that," Loki said quietly, holding Anthony close.

"Maybe I should have – "

Loki kissed Anthony to stop the flow of words. "You did all you could have. Anymore and you risk altering the timeline. You know that, love. You and your father parted on friendly terms, he knows your affections for him even if he didn't know the real reasons for them, and you said your farewells. It is enough."

"I just… I supposed you're right," Anthony sighed. It was a long time before either of them fell asleep that night. 

The next day, Loki vanished all their belongings to a local charity shop and packed up all of Anthony's equipment into a pocket dimension to be retrieved later. It wouldn't do for any of their future technology to fall into the wrong hands. They had already said their farewells to the O'Donnellys, concocting a tale about Ed having found a job in California. Maria made them promise to stay in touch, a promised that neither Loki nor Anthony could make. 

"It was as much of the truth as I could tell them," Loki had explained after Anthony caught him slipping a thick envelope underneath Maria's door after Owen had left for work and Maria to the local market. "They might not believe it, but Maria and Owen deserve some sort of explanation after all they've done for us."

Standing at the top of the steps, Loki looked around the now mostly empty house, feeling a sense of sadness to be leaving the house. While the house had never actually belonged to either Loki or Anthony, they had made it their home for the past 11 months. It was the place where they found each other and come together, it was the place where Loki found himself once more. 

"I should put in an offer and buy this place from your friends," Anthony said as he came to stand next to Loki, entwining their fingers. 

"You already have your tower, what would you do with a house in the suburbs?" 

Anthony shrugged. "I don't know. Come up here on weekends and play housewife with you?" 

Loki let out a chuckle and gently shoved Anthony with his shoulder. "I am _not_ a housewife. You see any frilly aprons and feather dusters around?" 

"Sometimes, I really wonder where the hell you get all your ideas about Earth culture from. Frilly aprons and...." Anthony trailed off and then his eyes widened. "Oh my god, _Bewitched_! I should've put it all together sooner! That trick with turning my words literal, that was from an episode of _I Dream of Jeannie_! You watch _60s sitcom_?!"

Loki couldn't help but laugh at the look of utter dismay on Anthony's face at his realisation, lightening the mood somewhat. 

"Seriously, darling? Is that how you know _Star Trek_! You were on a 60s TV kick?"

Loki shrugged, amused. "I found them interesting." 

The rift activity started increasing from mid-morning as Anthony predicted, and within minutes they could see the familiar ghostly figures they had first saw over 11 months and a life time ago. Unlike the last time, Anthony held onto Loki as Loki weaved his spells and navigated them back towards their own time. Loki reached out with his magic to grasp the power of the Time Gem, and the reproduction of the Tesseract within Anthony's arc reactor. The light grew brighter and brighter until Loki had to shut his eyes. Holding on tightly to Anthony, Loki willed the Time Gem to obey his command and to send them back where they came from. There was a slight disorientation as Loki felt the ground under his feet disappeared before reappearing again. 

"Did it work?" Anthony asked a moment later, still holding onto Loki.

"Sir?" A voice emitted from Anthony's pocket.

"Jarvis?!" Anthony let go of Loki and scrambled for his phone. "Is that you buddy?"

"Yes sir, you had disappeared for over 11 minutes, I alerted Ms Potts of the incident moments after your disappearance."

"What? Eleven minutes? Are you sure?"

"Yes sir, 11 minutes and 14 seconds to be precise."

"We were gone for 11 months and a few days," Loki murmured, he felt exhausted, leaning his head against Anthony's shoulder as he tried to collect himself. 

"Darling, you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Give me a minute, I need to make sure this rift is sealed," Loki said, straightening himself up and walking towards the crack in the wall that was still emitting low amount of lights. Loki knelt down in front of the crack and reached his hands out towards the crack and _pushed_. He felt the Time Gem appear in his palm and he closed his fist around the gem as he pulled it out of the time stream. Reaching out with his other hand, he touched Anthony's arc reactor, drawing on the powers of the gem and the Tesseract once more to close the rift. Within moments, the crack in the wall disappeared before their eyes and Loki slumped backwards into Anthony's arms, feeling utterly drained. "Welcome home, Anthony."

"Welcome home, Loki."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is basically the last chapter, but there will be an epilogue tomorrow.


	19. Epilogue

It had been almost four months since the morning Pepper woke up at five in the morning to Jarvis telling her that Tony had literally disappeared. Then, barely 15 minutes later, Tony himself had called her to say that everything was fine. Things only got weirder when Tony finally turned up at the penthouse with a strange man who Pepper could've sworn was drunk for the way he was draped all over Tony, looking like he needed the support to even stand. Tony had then proceeded to put the man to bed _in his own room _instead of one of the guest rooms before he had even said hello to Pepper.__

__Pepper had gone into Tony's room, on the verge of loudly demanding an answer when she came to a stop by the door, shocked by the sight of what was happening right in front of her. Tony was practically tucking the other guy into bed like it was something he did everyday. Pepper felt her jaw drop when Tony leaned down and kissed the guy._ _

__She'd always known that Tony was bisexual, but in all the years of their friendship, Pepper had never actually seen Tony with a guy. She knew it happened, but unlike his M.O. with his female bed partners, Tony was extremely discreet when it came to guys._ _

__It was then that she noticed the wedding rings and her brain went into disaster control mode. She left Tony alone with whoever the guy in bed was and went to make coffee. She had a feeling it was needed, and she was right._ _

__Never in a million years would Pepper been able to guess what had happened to Tony in the 11 minutes that he was missing. If it weren't for Tony's inexplicable longer hair, Pepper wouldn't have even believed him._ _

__"And you're married?"_ _

__"We pretended to be married," Tony clarified._ _

__"That kiss I saw before didn't look fake. And how did you pretend to be married to a guy back in the 30s?"_ _

__"Did I mention that he's a shape-shifter? He'd change into his female form whenever we were out or had company."_ _

__"Oh God," Pepper moaned, already trying to figure out how to handle the PR disaster this was for sure going to be._ _

__"He's that, too. God of Mischief, Chaos, and Lies, if the Norse mythology's right."_ _

__"Tony – "_ _

__"Don't worry about it, Pepper."_ _

__"What do you mean don't worry about it? If you're going to stay together, which from what I've heard and seen, is exactly what you're going to do, we need to come up with a plan. You can't just wake up one day and tell the world that you're married to a Norse god!"_ _

__"That's what I'm saying, we won't be doing that. I mean, we're going to have time to plan. Loki needs to go back to Asgard for a bit after this, and we can have everything ready for when he gets back in a few months."_ _

__Now, two and a half weeks after Loki's three-month deadline, Pepper could see her friend slowly coming apart at the seams as the days went by with no sign of Loki returning._ _

__"Don't say it," Tony said even before Pepper opened her mouth. "I'm not worried that he won't be back because he will. I'm worried _for_ him. Who knows what the hell's happening in Asgard." _ _

__Just who the hell was Loki Odinson? Pepper had only met him briefly before he left for Asgard, and she couldn't tell what it was about him that made Tony had such faith in him. There was of course, the obvious physical attributes that were no doubt what caught Tony's attention in the first place, and Loki was intelligent enough to keep up with Tony, but beyond that, Pepper hadn't had enough time to figure it out. Tony had been incredibly tight lipped about the whole affair, which was how Pepper knew that Loki was important; Tony was only ever quiet about the things that meant most to him._ _

__"What are you going to do if he can't come back?" Pepper asked instead._ _

__"I'm going to get Jane Foster from New Mexico, build a rainbow bridge and go to Asgard myself," Tony replied without hesitation._ _

__"While that sentiment is appreciated, love, it won't be necessary," a voice came from the back of Tony's workshop and the tall figure of Loki Odinson walked out from the shadows._ _

__Tony spun around so fast that he almost lost his balance, Pepper's presence immediately forgotten._ _

__"Drama queen," Tony accused, a small but pleased smile on his face as he looked at Loki who had stopped in the middle of the room, staring right back at Tony. "You're late."_ _

__"Things got complicated," Loki replied._ _

__Knowing Tony's penchant for the dramatic, Pepper had expected some grand reunion like something out of a Hollywood romance movie, but Tony merely walked right up to Loki and just…hugged him. Loki returned the gesture, holding Tony tight. There were soft murmurs that Pepper couldn't make out. Tony then reached up and pulled Loki in for a kiss. Pepper had to turn her back to the couple, giving them their privacy. Over the years she'd worked with Tony, she had more than once stumbled upon him in various compromising positions and states of undress, but never had any of those moments felt as intimate as the simple kiss she had just inadvertently witnessed._ _

__"You can turn around now, Pep."_ _

__"Are you sure? You don't want me to leave the room for, oh, 15 minutes?" she teased, turning around._ _

__"Oh, what I plan to do to Loki here would take longer than 15 minutes," Tony said, and there was no mistaking the sheer joy that radiated through his entire being. Pepper could not recall ever seeing Tony so happy. "Way longer. In fact, I think a whole 15 hours might be required to fully reacquaint myself with – "_ _

__"Anthony!" Loki chastised, cutting Tony off before he could go further into the TMI territory. Loki was clearly the one in the relationship with some modicum of tact and propriety._ _

__Pepper raised her eyebrows in surprised when Tony didn't correct Loki about the use of his name, or to talk over his objection. Even Pepper couldn't get away with calling Tony by his full name unless he had done something incredibly stupid to anger her._ _

__A part of her couldn't help but feel a sense of regret over what it could have been between Tony and herself, but she could not find it within herself to begrudge Tony his happiness, especially when it looked very much like his feelings were also returned. Loki had held onto Tony's hand since their hug and hadn't let go at all. Pepper had a feeling that if it weren't for her presence, Loki would be doing more than holding Tony's hand._ _

__"Tony, I already know way too much about your sex life as it is. I don't need to know more," Pepper said. "Loki, welcome back." She smiled at the other man. "You have no idea how insufferable he's been since you left."_ _

__"Thank you," Loki replied. "I hope Tony hasn't caused you too much grief?"_ _

__"Nothing I can't handle," Pepper replied. "Tony and I already had a plan in place for your return, but I'm sure he wants to run some of the details by you first before we implement it. So stay out of sight for a couple days while I set things in motion. I have a feeling that's not going to be a problem."_ _

__"Why Miss Potts! What could you be insinuating there?" Tony exclaimed in mocked outrage._ _

__"Oh, I believe you know exactly what I'm suggesting, Mr Stark." Pepper smirked, happy to see the playful side of Tony returning. "Have fun, boys." Pepper called out as she turned around to leave Tony's workshop._ _

__"We will!" She heard Tony call out and Loki's laughter rang out before the elevator door shut behind her._ _

__Pepper made a mental note to set some time aside to have a chat with Loki. It looks like she will need to get to know the man better now that it's looking like he was here to stay. She thought she should probably also give Phil a call about one of those energy weapons SHIELD had been developing since Thor crash landed in New Mexico. If Loki ever broke Tony's heart, that gun would definitely come in handy._ _

__

__The End._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all folks! Thank you for all the comments and support! Hope the ride's been worth it! There are going to be more in this universe, and I'm hoping to get something else posted before New Year's but it all depends on whether I can untangle some of the stuff I have going on. And wrestle the muse into submission to finish off Fic #3. 
> 
> Merry Xmas to all who celebrate and happy holiday season to the rest!


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